Breaking a Rose
by VA.writer-25
Summary: Rose Hathaway Mazur has a past that she can never out run. And having the cause of her pains boyfriend, Dimitri Belikov, constantly around does not help. Will she find peace and love with him or will her family business kill her before she has the chance?
1. Chapter 1

**Sorry I haven't updated my other stories in so long, but I'm kind of at a stand still with them so if you have an good ideas please let me know!**

**I have most of this story planned out so the updates should be pretty regular as long as I get good reviews. And please review I want to know what you think!**

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><p><em>I could feel him hands snaking up my body to my throat. I could hear his threatening words and the tone of delight in his voice. I could remember every detail of the beatings he'd given me in the past week, but I could not get away. I started crying, screaming, anything that would help someone find me.<em>

"Rose!" I felt another set of hands on my body pushing and pulling me. I tried to fight back but they screamed at me more. "Rose wake up!"

My eyes shot open and I came face to face with my worried best friend Lissa. I tried to play off the nightmare as best I could acting like it was nothing as I rubbed my eyes and sat up slowly. "What time is it?" I asked groggily.

"A little after noon." She said still looking at me like she was going to interrogate me at any second.

"Shit, I need to get to the club." I got out of bed and immediately felt my hang over, but tried to play it off for Lissa.

"Rose, Christian's already there you don't need to go just yet." She protested following me to my closet.

"Actually I do. One of the bar girls was giving Eddie trouble so dad had her sacked and now I have to pick up the slack." I explained as I went in to the bathroom to freshen up and shut the door to keep Lissa out.

"Really Rose!" She shouted from the other side of the door. "People would kill for a job at the club, just hire someone!"

"And waste time training them just so they can try and get into the family business? I don't think so!" I shouted after I brushed my teeth and was applying makeup.

"Talking to you is like having a conversation with a brick wall."

I opened the door and walk to my bed, "How so?"

"I hate doing either and it's annoying as hell." She glared at me as I changed into my favorite loose jeans and a plain white V- neck.

"You know you love talking to me and at least I talk back." I smiled as I threw my hair into a ponytail.

"I never said I wanted you to." I stuck my tongue out at her but she pretended not to notice. "You know Rose, there's a reason you're hot and it's not so you can throw on a t-shirt and jeans that won't even show off your curves or so you can throw your hair up and look like crap."

"Ouch," I said looking up at her from tying my shoes. "I almost felt that burn through my crap look." Liss just shook her head and walked out which caused me to laugh. I followed her to the kitchen and grabbed the waffles she'd made me. "Thank you!" I smiled and ran to the garage.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" She called down the hall.

"Okay, so don't speed, drink, or flash my boobs at anyone. Got it."

"That's my girl!" She laughed.

"Too bad I will speed and drink." I yelled as I picked out the car keys.

"Why not flash someone while you're at it?"

"No, then someone might see through my crap and think I'm hot!"

She laughed as I got in my new red 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and drove away. It wasn't that I loved fast cars, but believe me I did just not all the time, I needed it in doses. To say my family is rich would be the understatement of the century, and to say I was loaded wasn't far from the truth. Truth was my dad is pretty much a mobster; he deals with illegal arms deals, drugs, running underground clubs, the works. When I was 18 he decided I was old enough to… contribute. I don't deal with the drugs and weapons; he said if by some odd chance we did get caught he didn't want me implicated in the really bad stuff. I run most of the clubs her in Montana and keep the underground deals that take place here underground. If anyone finds out they're dealt with and who ever tipped them off is usually never heard from again.

The girl that was giving my cousin Eddie trouble was one of the people who tipped off the CIA about what might be going on at our newest club Court. We redirected all deals to another club nearby called Academy and when the CIA investigated nothing could be found.

Anyway back to the cars, we have nice ones, some less flashy than others (others being the one I'm driving). But seeing as I was running late I wanted to get there as quickly as possible. We also had the mansion I was currently staying in along with my best friend Lissa, Eddie, Christian, sometimes dad, and the other full time workers whenever they were in town. It was huge even for my standards; 5 stories, over 45 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms on every floor, a larger than necessary kitchen, game room, theater, bar, and other unnecessary rooms.

I parked and walked into the club where the music was already blaring which didn't help the hangover. "Christian what the fuck are you doing?"

Him and Eddie's heads snapped in my direction and the music shut off. "We needed new entertainers since the last few got fired." Entertainers was just a nice way of saying strippers and fired was another term for dealt with for being hardcore sluts with grubby hands that don't know when to not steal money.

"Whatever," I shook my head, "just keep it down." I entered the bar as the music came on and girls tried to seduce my cousins. Personally I thought the strippers were gross, but dad said the VIP's pay for service so that's what they get.

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><p>Once the stripper show was finally done Christian and Eddie came and sat at the bar where I had three glasses of vodka waiting for us. We all drank and once I'd chocked it down I turned to Christian. "So how are things with Lissa?"<p>

"Alright." He shrugged.

"Which means 'I've done nothing but watch her from afar hoping one day her heart and vagina will be mine'." Eddie sighed dreamily and I just laughed.

"Honestly Chris you two need to just fuck already. Every time I'm in a room with you two I could cut the sexual tension with a chain saw."

"How about this, I worry about my sexy life and you two worry about your nonexistent ones." He smirked.

"What sex life? I think I'd know if you had one seeing as our rooms are right next to each other… Unless you love making is incredibly unsatisfying." Eddie laughed at his own joke.

"Exactly and besides I have it on good authority that Eddie's been mating like a rabbit with a certain Barbie doll named Mia."

Eddie blushed as Christian turned to him, "Really dude? You could do so much better!"

"I like her." Eddie mumbled looking down.

"Whatever," Christian turned to me. "What about you Rose… No crazy dirty sex life." I froze and the bottle of vodka I was pouring nearly slipped out of my hand, but I recovered and caught it. "Rose I'm sorry." Christian said quickly and genuinely.

"I know." I put the bottle away and downed my drink. "I'm gonna go check on the old man before opening. Try not to trash the bar while I'm done I just did inventory."

I walked towards the hidden door to the stairs and heard Eddie mumble to Chris, "Nice going man." I shook my head as I shut the door and went up the stairs to the offices. Was there nothing I could do to out run that part of my past? I tried so hard yet it always popped back up. I was 21 now, that was three years ago and still reminders were everywhere. And when I say everywhere I mean _everywhere_. Including standing in my dad's office with a tall, buff guy… "Rose, perfect timing. I'd like you to meet the new bouncer and part time bar help Dimitri Belikov and you remember his girlfriend Tasha." because when I walked in there stood none other than Tasha Ozera, the one who introduced me to the guy that ruined my life.


	2. Chapter 2

I wouldn't exactly call this perfect timing but I wasn't going to say that to the old man with her here. "Umm I can come back later..." Yeah that was my genius response...

"No Kiz it's alright. I want you to take Mr. Belikov downstairs and show him the ropes while I catch up with Natasha." My dad said politely while motioning to Dimitri.

As I was about to reject the request I heard a loud moan from the room next door. I repressed the urge to roll my eyes and looked at Abe. "Really old man?" He just shrugged as I walked out the door and threw open the door where the disturbing sounds came from.

Unsurprisingly there was another one of my cousins Adrian Ivashkov with some sluts naked body all over him. This time I did roll my eyes and sigh as I made my way over to them and threw her off of him. "Hey!" She squealed.

"Get out," I pointed to the door then turned to Adrian. "You couldn't go one day without getting laid here? Really Adrian that's pathetic."

"What the hell do you think you're doing bitch?" The blond haired, big boob bimbo yelled at me. She had blue eyes and a curvy body, but Adrian's done so much better and add on her annoying voice and I just don't understand why he'd fuck her. I mean just from nine word I already want to punch the bitch I don't see how he can deal with hearing her moan and… yeah, that's just gross.

"I thought I told you to leave." I glared at her as her and Adrian threw cloths on. I looked back at my cousin and my anger boiled over. "Adrian when did you get all this drinks?"

"The bar." He smirked at me knowing I was about to blow a gasket.

"You son of a bi-"

"Excuse you!" Blondie cut me off. I gave her a death glare, grabbed her forearm, and dragged her to the hallway where she finally yanked her arm away from me. "Get your fucking hands off me!"

"Would you like me to kick you out or have you dragged out in a body bag?" I asked trying to calm down.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Boobs for brains yelled at me... again.

"I think I'm Rose Mazur, owner of this club, and I think I'm the girl who you've pissed off." The second I said my name I knew she realized she was in deep shit. "So let me ask you again would you like me to kick you out or have you dragged out in a body bag?"

Adrian finally walked out of the room fully clothed and put a hand o my shoulder. "Now now cousin no need to scare the girl." He turned to her, "You can go now Alice."

Before she turned I smirked and said, "And don't come back." I could tell she was tempted to give me the finger but she walked away without a word.

"Thanks a lot Rose. Now I need a cold shower." I could smell the sarcasm in his voice it was just that bad.

"It's payback for messing up my inventory!" I yelled. "Now if you'll excuse me I have to go fix it." I started to walk to the stairs when my dad called.

"Rosemarie take Dimitri."

I groaned, "Fine, come on Dimitri." Abe glared at me and I smiled, "Sorry did you want some enthusiasm?" I grabbed Dimitri's arm and added some extra excitement to my voice. "Come on Dimitri lets go downstairs so I can introduce you to hell." I practically dragged him downstairs with Adrian laughing the whole way.

Christian had gone up to the DJ station and started the music as well as turned off all the lights then turned on all the strobe lights and disco balls. Eddie was talking with Pavel and Mikhail, the other two bouncers and I decided it would be easiest for them to tell Dimitri what to do. I let go of his arm and told him to follow me. "Hey guys this is Dimitri Belikov, the new bouncer and Tasha's boyfriend so be nice." Eddie's eyes shot to me when I mentioned Tasha and I just shrugged. "Dimitri, this is my cousin Eddie, and the two other bouncers Pavel and Mikhail. You'll start watching the doors tonight with Stan and once you get the hang of that you'll be able to come inside with Eddie and Mikhail or watch the VIP door with Pavel."

"I'll show him the ropes for now seeing as Stan's not here." Mikhail gave a welcoming nod to Dimitri and started an in-depth conversation with him about how Wednesdays we easy nights and how he won't have trouble tonight.

Eddie turned to me and was about to say something when Christian's voice cut him off over the announcement system. "Hey Rose, have you seen the entertainer we hired for tonight?"

"You mean the stripper?" I flashed a smile up at him and he just shook his head. "Not that I know of," I shouted. "What did she look like?"

"Blond, blue eyes, big boobs, kinda of annoying voice, but that's what ever because we don't hire them to talk."

Adrian started to laugh at my face which was a cross between shocked and outraged. So that's why he almost slept with her she was the stripper! "Uhhhh no, I haven't."

"Actually she just fired her." Adrian said before I could slap my hand over his mouth.

"Adrian!" I yelled at him and he just smirked.

"You what Rose?" Chris yelled making his way over to us.

Everyone had turned their attention to us including Dimitri, Mikhail, and Sydney, the other bartender. "Ohhh Boobs For Brains, yeah my bad." I joked. "But really she was a dimwit and you were right about the voice, just yuck!"

"Rose!" Christian was pissed, but boy was about to shut him up.

"Don't get mad at me! Yes I fired the hooker, _but_" I knew he was about to interrupt me for calling the girl a hooker, but I continued. "I specifically said don't trash the bar, so who let Adrian get into it and ruin my inventory." Christian went silent and turned paler than he already was. "That's what I thought." I smirked and walked over to talk to Sydney.

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><p>It was nearly midnight and the night was going pretty well. There hadn't been any fights and no one had given Dimitri trouble which was good for him being his first day, the only bad thing was that Tasha had stuck around. I was in a decent conversation with Adrian and sharing shots when my eyes shot to the man walking in. "Adrian, why is your dad here?" I asked with a strained voice. He turned around so fast he knocked over his drink on the person next to him who started to freak out. "Eddie, tell tables 24 and 36 to reschedule we have company and Pavel alert the VIP's and Abe that Nathan is here." I said in to the communication ear pieces that all the bouncers and people in the business shared. Sydney had helped clean up the drinks and Adrian had disappeared which didn't surprise me, he probably left to hide from his dad. "Christian we've got CIA, what's your call?" I asked through the comms.<p>

"I don't know Rose, from here I can see he's alone, but I just don't trust business tonight. What about you Ed?"

"I don't like this, I'd shut it down." Eddie said.

"Alright Chris, shut it down." I said and them shouted to the bar, "Sorry guys final call, pay your tabs then out!" Everyone groaned, but had learned to obey that orders anyone that worked here gave. The music and lights stopped as Christian announced we were closing. Soon people were filing out as quickly as they could and before I knew it everyone was gone.

"Rosemarie," I turned and came face to face with my uncle, Nathan Ivashkov. "Why close so early?"

I cringed at the glint in his eye, but tried to play it off. "We don't really need the business and I'm tired, so if you don't mind we'd like to close and go home." I tried to sound friendly but he knew I was kicking him out.

"I'm just waiting for your father, we're going to a family dinner. You and Adrian are more than welcome to come." He smiled like he was the lion and I was the lamb to be slaughtered.

"No thanks, family dinner's aren't really mine or Adrian's thing."

"Nathan," I had never been happier to hear my father's strong voice. Nathan turned to look at Abe who motioned him out the door and he did as asked. Dad gave me a sad smile which I returned and he walked out.

The second the door shut I grabbed a shot glass and the bottle of tequila. I wasn't sure how many shots I'd chocked down when Dimitri sat in front of me. "Want one?" I asked feeling a little tipsy.

"No thanks." He said sharply.

"Okay…" I eyed him curiously. "Why are you still here?"

"Abe sent Tasha home, said you'd be happy to drive me home."

"Did he now?" Dimitri nodded and watched me with a small hint of resentment in his eyes. "And I suppose he means the mansion." He nodded again even though it wasn't a question. Working for Abe was like signing away your soul, but at least you got a nice room out of it. Reluctantly I put away the bottle and shot glass, grabbed my purse, and walk out of the bar. "Come on," I slurred. We got out to the car and I could barely walk straight, I knew the drinks were getting at me but I was not a dizzy drunk and I could control myself for the most part so I felt ok to drive, but Dimitri didn't.

"Give me the keys." He demanded which caused me to glare at him. "I don't want to die on the way there and I don't think you do either."

I sighed and gave him the keys, "It's the red one."

We got out to the parking lot and he stopped, "That red one?" He pointed to my car.

"No, the other red one in the empty parking lot… Yes that one!" He glared at me and we got in the car. "Don't crash I love this car." That was the last thing I said before I fell asleep or passed out.

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><p><strong>review! :)<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Extra long because I feel really bad for not updating for so long!**

I don't know what woke me up the most; whether it was the urge to throw up or the nagging headache caused by the open drapes, but whatever it was I was wide awake and sprinting to my bathroom. After emptying my stomach completely I brushed my teeth, showered, lightly blow dried my hair, and went back to my room to change. I opened my bathroom door and walked straight into my room. The walls were white, but the floor was all black tiles, along with the large drapes that covered my full wall of windows. I quickly hit the button and the drapes automatically slid across the entire wall and made my room pitch black, then I clapped and the lights came on. Thank God they were dimmed or my headache would kill me. I walked across my room to the black double doors that opened to my walk in closet that was about half the size of my room, which means it's huge. My room takes up the entire fifth floor of my dad's house so I had my own closet, bathroom, room, living room, pool, and guest room all to myself covering over 2000 square feet. Like I said unnecessarily big house, but my favorite part of my room was definitely the windows, except for when I'm hung over. Every night I sit on my couch and just look out the 20 feet high windows wishing on every shooting star I saw.

I sighed as I grabbed a plain white long sleeve shirt and my favorite pair of jeans. Every time I thought about making a wish I thought about my mother, Janine. Thinking about her brought back memories I'd rather forget, but I never could. I found myself absent mindedly playing with the locket around my neck, the last thing she'd given me before she disappeared. I snapped myself out of my memories and changed then ran downstairs to the kitchen through a secret staircase in my closet.

I walked straight to the wooden island in the center of the kitchen, there sitting on the granite counter top was a glass full of my current obsession. _'Dear Rose, You should learn to take it easy or I'm just going to have to teach you how to make this. –Love, Osanka'_ I smiled as I took off the note and choked down the mixture Osanka—the house chief along with her husband Mark—had left me, it was her own person cure to hangovers that she had so graciously made for me ever since the incident. After I finished it I slammed the glass down and my other hand shot out to keep me from falling, I breathed in and out slowly until I felt the hangover start to subside. Just because the drink helps doesn't meant it feels any better than a hangover, for the seconds it takes for the horrid tasting liquid to take affect your whole body feels weak and you want to hurl, however if you can stand the discomfort it's worth it.

Completely healed of my hangover I went straight to the fridge and pulled out some eggs and milk. As I scrambled my eggs I drank straight from the carton and heard the main door to the kitchen open. "I see you found your present from Osanka." Adrian observed as he dug in the fridge for pancakes once he found them he pulled out a stool and sat at the island.

I brought my milk carton and frying pan of eggs to the island and scrapped the eggs on to the plate Adrian had set out for me. "Shockingly yes! Somehow it's always in the same place every morning so I don't think I could miss it."

He chuckled as I put the pan and spatula in the sink and came to sit with him. "Careful," he smiled teasingly at me; "I might not want to share these delicious pastries I went out to get this morning." He pulled a donut box out from behind his back and I smiled eagerly at him.

"Please, gimmie!" I reached out and he handed me the box smiling at me. That's what I loved about Adrian—he just knew me, he knew how to make me smile, laugh, or cry at the drop of a hat and he could tell you everything about me without even thinking about it. We were just so in sync since the moment we'd met that if we ever needed anything the other knew. For instance, donuts. Adrian knew last night was a rough one and so he brought me the one thing he knew would put me in a decent mood today.

I tore open the box and found six donuts and a lot of donut holes. I looked up at Adrian questioningly about the two extra donuts. "For the Russian."

"Dimitri?"

"Yeah, figured I'd be nice for now. After all he did take care of my precious little flower last night." He smiled as he caressed my cheek.

I swatted his hand away from my face and laughed. "What are you talking about? All he did was drive me home in my car."

"How do you think you got to your room?"

I looked at him curiously, "I just assumed you carried me up like always. That's why he was on my couch this morning?"

Adrian looked confused, "I guess. I waited for you to get home and he came in with you curled up in his arms –it was kind of adorable—and he said he could take you up so I let him." I looked at him like he was crazy for letting a new guy carry me around much less give him the code to get to my room in the elevator. "B- but- but- but!" He stuttered, "I told him where his room was so I don't know why he didn't just go there."

Looking at Adrian I knew he was hiding something from me and I also knew he wouldn't let Dimitri take me to my room if his wasn't close by. "And where is his room exactly?"

"Your guest room," he mumbled looking down at his hands and cringing away from me.

"What?" I yelled dropping the donut box safely on the island and shot off my stool. "Why the hell is he staying on my floor?"

"As protection for you." I looked up ready to attack whoever said that until I realized it was my father.

I sighed as all my anger just flew out the window as I looked into the worried and loving eyes of my father, "But I don't need protection, Baba, I know how to fight and nothing has happened in months. Unless the threats have reoccurred in which case you should have told me."

"No, no more threats. But I would rather be safe than sorry. If anything happened to you Rose I wouldn't be able to survive." Abe said as he grabbed a small bottle of orange juice and a donut hole.

"Alright, but at least don't put him in my guest room." I admitted defeat as I sat down and grabbed two double chocolate glazed donuts.

"No can do Kiz." My dad chuckled as he kissed my head and headed for the back door that opened to the massive garage.

"Why not old man?"

"Because there's no more rooms available." He chuckled at my murderous expression as he stood at the door. I grabbed an apple off the fruit tray in the center of the island and hurled it at him. HE ducked out the door and laughed as he stuck his head back in, "You coming Adrian?"

"Yes sir," Adrian laughed as he stood up, "See ya Rosie." He kissed my forehead and ran out the door with Abe.

"Y'all better hope I don't find you tonight." I yelled right before the door shut. I sighed and chuckled as I started to eat my donuts.

"What's so funny?" A deep voice with the sexiest hint of a Russian accent filled my ears. I tensed and then realized who it was and relaxed slightly. "Sorry, I didn't realized you didn't know I was here."

I shook my head, "It's fine, I just didn't see you come in."

"Ohh I took your stairs, I hope that's ok," Dimitri brushed it off like it wasn't a big deal as he grabbed a plate out of a cabinet and sat in Adrian's seat.

"How did you know where it was?" I asked shocked and a little creeped.

"Abe gave my blue prints of all the mansions a couple days ago and made me memorize all of them." He said not looking at me as he grabbed an apple and took a bite of it.

"Really?" He nodded still not looking at me. "So you know exactly where everything is in every mansion?"

"Pretty much." Dimitri grabbed an orange and began to peal it. _Still_ not looking at me!

"Ummm Adrian got you some donuts." I said stupidly. I'd never had someone treat me so coldly. They'd either been afraid of me so they treated me with respect or they knew me so they treated me like a friend. Never had a guy not looked at me with out emotion, or not looked at me at all. I held the box out to him and he took two without a word. "You know you could say thank you?" My snarkyness was kicking in and boy was I getting pissed.

"I will, when I see Adrian." He continued to eat his donut and study the room.

I just starred at him in disbelief. "_Really?_ Really? You're gonna come into _my_ house and treat me like shit. You must think you're really cool right now, but let me tell you something. Never has anyone treated me as low as you are now. I don't care that my dad hired you to 'protect me' I can take care of myself, and I don't give a shit that you work at the club, or that you're with Tasha, but I _do not_ handle people acting like dicks around me and I certainly will not take crap from _you_. It doesn't matter to me if you hate me, all I care about is that you respect me." At this point me food was forgotten and I was standing up.

Dimitri finally looked up at me with a glint in his eyes that I couldn't place, but with no emotion on his face. "Respect is earned, and from the way you acted last night you don't deserve my respect."

I was taken aback at the tone of his voice –cold and uncaring. "So you're just going to judge me on one night. That's mature."

"No it's the way I am. I will not respect you until you show me you are worth respecting." He stood now and was towering over me as his deep brown eyes bore into mine.

My glare softened until it became on existent. His arms, his chest, his face, his hair, they all looked so familiar. "You were one of the men who helped my father find me?"

His voice was soft and his angry expression fell off his face at my words. "I carried you out of the hotel room."

"Thank you." I broke eyes contact and grabbed my plate dumped the rest of the donut in the trash then set the plate in the sink, put the milk away, and headed up stairs while Dimitri just watched me. Somewhere around the third floor memories started flashing back. I pushed back as best I could, but the images just kept coming. I abruptly stopped and leaned against the circular brick wall that ran between the winding staircase. My breathing speed up as tears filled my eyes; I became so weak I slid down the wall and sat on the stairs as I cried.

_His hand on my thigh, so close to my – My first time was supposed to be special, but it wasn't and now it could never be. I had lost track of how many times he'd taken me against my will, yet now somehow I didn't care. I could never be loved now, I knew that. All the things he'd said about me were true: I was a whore, I was weak, I was ugly, I was fat, I was stupid, I was useless –and the worst—I was worthless._

_I was never going to be found, never going home. I would die as his slut and nothing more. I would never see my father again, never see Adrian, Lissa, Christian, Eddie, Mia, Mikhail, Pavel, none of the people I loved would even know I had left this world._

_I watched as he pulled a knife from his belt and the tears began to run. "I told you that you were weak, Rosemaire." He sneered. He trailed it up my body and I didn't dare move. "You know what I'm going to do to you? I'm going to take this knife" he waved what was in his hand and place it on my exposed stomached right above my belly button, "I'm going to run it up, up, up" the knife cut into my skin as it left a trail of blood up my stomach, between my breast, stopping at my throat, "and stop. Wouldn't want to damage your voice now would we? I do love hearing you scream." He then took the knife and started carving things into my side, the pain was excruciating. "Scream for me, Rosemarie." Tears ran all over my face, but I would not scream. "Tell me how much it hurts," he added more pressure. "Beg me to stop," more pressure and faster carvings. "Cry out for help," the anger was clear on his face now. "You will never be rescued, Rosemarie!" He yelled grabbing my face and making me look at him. "No one thinks you are worth saving." He threw my face to the side and threw the knife away as he began to undo his pants. "Tonight will be special Rose, tonight will be our last together… For now." After that I blacked out._

_A loud bang woke me up and I sat up quickly. Pain radiated from my chest and I looked down to see blood everywhere. I grabbed the sheet to cover myself when I heard footsteps coming towards my door. "Rose! Rose!" He was shouting my name –who he was I didn't know—as long as it wasn't _him_ I was alright. Someone threw open my door and I crawled back on the bed careful not to move my torso too much. "Rose," warm brown eyes looked into mine. He came towards me quickly and reached for me, but I shrunk away. "Rose," he bent his knees to be eye level with me, "you can trust me. Abe sent me, I've come to take you home." He held out his hand to me and after carefully looked at him for a few moments I nodded to him. The man tucked his arms under me carefully and lifted me slowly so he didn't hurt me too much. "You're safe now Rose. I'm going to protect you." I had never felt safer than when I was in that mans arms. "Rose. Rose…"_

"Rose," a hand moved my hair from my face and caressed my cheek. "Please, open your eyes. "You're safe now."

My eyes fluttered open and I met his warm brown eyes again. Slowly he held his hands out to me, as if he was asking permission again, I nodded to him and he carefully whipped away my tears. "You're safe, and I'm going to protect you." I saw the promise and determination in his eyes.

"I know." I said as I removed his hands from my face. I slowly stood up and began walking upstairs again. I could hear Dimitri following me slowly and once I got to my room I left the door open for him. Going straight to my bathroom I began profusely whipping any make up I had on off of my face and applying new foundation, black eye liner, light eye shadow, and some mascara. I walked back out to my room and saw Dimitri staring out the windows, "The one in front of you opens to the balcony."

He turned to me and looked… surprised, "What?"

"That window," I pointed to it, "There's a small handle on it, turn it and push and it opens to the balcony. It's beautiful, you should go look."

"I will some other time, I need to get settled into my room before I head to work." He walked towards me and stopped a few steps in front of me. "So… Will you show me my room?" He asked gently.

"Ohhhh right," I turned quickly and walked towards the door between my bed and closet. I opened it and allowed him to walk in before I followed him. The lights automatically came on when he walked in and let him see everything in the light golden room. The king sized bed was in the corner in front of us with a mini fridge next to it and a night stand. There was a book shelf on wall across from the door and there were a few full length windows on the far wall with a large Plasma TV in between them. "The fridge is fully stocked and if you want anything else in it let me know. The books are mostly westerns and the TV gets any channel you can think of. You can get any On Demand stuff you want Abe will pay for it and if you need anything else let me know because I'm literally right outside your door." I smiled when I heard him chuckle and then exited his room to give him space.

I sat on the edge of my bed and looked down at my hands. Slowly I moved them to the edge of my shirt and carefully pulled it up off my stomach. There was my reminder. _"You will always remember me, Rosemarie. Even though you think you'll be free of me once I am gone, _you will never be_, that I can promise you."_ The was the last thing _he_ had said to me. I ran my hands over the words he had carved into me: _zayıf_, _çirkin_, _yağ_, _aptal_, _işe_ _yaramaz_, _değersiz_, then lastly his name: _Victor Dashkov_. My fingers aimlessly traced the words that had scared over time and the long jagged scar that ran up my stomach.

"Roza," I looked up and Dimitri was standing right in front of me. He stared at my scars with a twisted face, "what- What does it mean?"

My hands dropped back to my lap and my shirt fell to cover my stomach. "It's written in Turkish so my father and our family would always remember the meaning… It means we are all vulnerable. That he can get to any of us whenever he pleases. Because…" I looked down to pull myself together then looked back up directly into his eyes. "Because if he can get to _me,_ then he can get to Abe, and he can get to anyone."

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><p><strong>Review and I'll get the next update out ASAP!<strong>

**The more reviews that fast you'll know what happens next :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Just to clarify some ages: ****Rose and Lissa are 21. Adrian, Christian, and Eddie are 22. Andre and Jesse are 23. Tasha is 27. Dimitri is 28.**

**I put a lot of work into this chapter and it explains A LOT of stuff so ****_please _****revi****ew or I really feel like I waste my time and I won't continue this story.**

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><p>I was in my closet slipping on my black boots over my dark washed skinny jeans when Dimitri walked in. I looked up at him and laughed when I realized we were matching. We both wore black button ups with the first few buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up to just below our elbows along with dark jeans and black shoes. He laughed with me as he walked over to where I was standing in front of my full length mirror, "You look nice."<p>

"Are you saying that because I do look nice or because you do?" I smiled at him as I tried to pin back my hair. It had been a couple weeks since I'd met him and now that we were over the awkwardness of learning to live with each other the two of us had settled into a nice grove.

He took a minute to think about it, "Maybe both." I was about to say something sarcastic when he reached up and took the hair clip from me then set it down with all the others. "Leave it down tonight." His hands went to my hair and moved it in front of my shoulders and tucked some of the long brown curls behind my ear. "You really do look nice."

"You look pretty good too," I genuinely smiled as I looked into his eyes. Those damn pools of dark brown got me every time. I was slowly melting away, all of the walls I'd built to keep people out, all of my secrets, my past it all faded from my mind as I just stood with him and his fingers mindlessly twirling through my hair. I felt the need to open up to him, to tell him anything –everything he wanted to know—and I knew I couldn't do that. All this time I'd spent keeping people away couldn't be wasted because of some stupid feelings I had for this guy that I'd only known for three weeks. I pulled away from him and grabbed my bag from the large black ottoman near me and headed for the door to the stairs. "You coming?" I looked back at him and smiled.

Dimitri looked at me a little confused at my sudden change of attitude but then nodded and followed me to the kitchen. Osanka was in the cooking dinner for some of the guests –who were coming in town tonight as well as spending the next three days at the mansion –and she turned to smile at us. "Off to work so soon?"

"It's almost seven, Osanka," I smiled. "I think I've let Adrian do enough damage to my bar by now."

She gave a small chuckle but then became serious, "You do more than enough damage every night dear. You really should take it easy."

"How else will I sleep though the night?" I laughed, but she knew how serious I was.

Osanka let it go and simply nodded, "Have fun and I will see you when you come home."

I waved as Dimitri and I walked out to the garage. I shut the door then turned to keep walking and ran into Dimitri's back. "Sorry!" I said quickly but he didn't move. I walked around him and looked at his awe- struck face, "Ummm, are you ok?"

"Can I drive?" His eyes never stopped scanning the endless supply of cars, trucks, SUVs, and motorcycles. This was the first time since he'd been living with us that he'd actually come down to the garage. Usually I'd pick him up at the front of the house or he would go with Tasha or Abe.

"If you want to…" I agreed looking at him warily.

"Which one?" He looked at me in surprise.

"Whatever you want." His face lit up and I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face. Dimitri quickly found the car he like and walked over to the white 2010 Audi a5 Convertible –my Christmas gift from Abe last year. My expression became pained as I looked at him, "That one. Does it have to be _that_ car?" I whined as his smiled and nodded. Grabbing the keys of the hook on the wall I groaned and walked over to him, "If _anything_ happens to this car, _you_ will need protection from _me_." Dimitri just laughed as I threw the keys at him, "I mean it!"

"I know," he smiled at me as he unlocked the car and we climbed in.

"You know I pictured you as more of an SUV or big truck kind of guy," I smiled at him as he turned the key in the ignition and the engine came to life. The feeling of the engine made my skin tingle and I just felt more alive in fast cars.

"I am," he stated as he pulled the car out on to the open roads and put the convertible top down. I looked at the beautiful lake that we drove past and smiled, its beauty never ceased to amazing me, but it was nothing compared to the man sitting next to me. "However I also appreciate a beautiful fast car such as this one. I believe a variety of vehicles is good for the soul." The way he looked as he speed down the empty roads made my heart flutter; this was the real Dimitri. He was free, he was opening up to me like he always did when we would drive to work together but this was different, and he was beautiful. A smile came on to my face that never left the entire way to work as we talked about his family, his life in Baia, and what he wanted to do later on in life.

Once he pulled into the Court parking lot and turned the car off I watched sadly as his freedom faded away. Dimitri's serious façade retuned as we walked closer and closer to the back entrance to the club. "Here," I turned to see him holding the keys out to me.

I sighed and pushed the keys back into his hand, "Keep 'em. You'll probably be driving home tonight anyway."

Once we walked in Mikhail informed Dimitri Abe wanted to see him. I gave Dimitri a reassuring smile before he headed up to the VIP area and I headed over to everyone sitting at the bar. Lissa and Christian leaned on the bar counter behind the bar and Adrian and Eddie were sitting on the two stools in front of the bar. Sitting on the empty stool between Adrian and Eddie I looked at the four people staring at me. "What?" I glanced at all of them completely lost. Christian's mouth was hanging open, Eddie was looking at me like I was insane, Lissa was smiling so big I swear her face was going to break, and Adrian was smirking as he drank some bourbon. "Will someone tell me what's going on?"

Adrian reached over the bar counter and pushed Christian's jaw shut then looked at me with his judgy eyes, "You let him drive your car."

"Yeah so?" My eyes flickered between all of them warily.

Lissa leaned closer to me over the bar counter and smiled, "You let him drive your car!"

"He drove my Camaro on the first night he met me." My monotone voice didn't dim her good mood, she just kept smiling at me like I was sunshine walking while I looked at all of them like they were on crack.

"That's not the point –and you were drunk then so you weren't thinking clearly enough to say no." Eddie finally stopped looking at me like I had two heads and said something. "It's the fact that none of us have ever driven one of your cars and he gets to."

"I've never even ridden in the Audi." Christian mumbled as he made himself a shot behind the bar.

"Ok… your point?" I still didn't understand what was so damn important about the cars.

"The point is, those cars are your babies and you don't let just anyone drive them." Adrian looked at me and he knew there was more going on between me and Dimitri than I was letting on.

"Look," I sighed, "I just trust him ok?"

"You _trust_ him?" Christian chuckled with sarcasm dripping off his words. "Don't you _trust_ us, Rosie?"

"Christian," my voice had a jokingly annoyed tone to it, "it's not like that. I just – I just feel safe with him and not in the creepy 'he's my protector kind of way' but like 'I know he's not going to let anything happen to me way'."

"I'd never let anything happen to you," Adrian's voice was playful but I could hear the hurt in it.

"I know," I smiled warmly at him, "but it's different. I owe him my life, literally."

Eddie was about to ask what I meant when someone cleared their throat behind us. I turned to find Dimitri, "Abe wants to see you." I nodded and followed him back to the VIP door not looking back at my friends –who I had no doubt were staring at us. Dimitri opened the door for me and I went up the stairs into the long hall full of rooms. We walked comfortably in silence to Abe's office and I was about to open the door when he reached out, grabbing my hand on the knob to stop me. "Thank you," all emotion was gone from his face, yet some how I understood how sincerely he meant it.

"For what?" My voice was quiet, because I didn't want Abe to hear, but the questioning tone in my voice came through loud and clear.

"I heard…" He started vaguely hoping I'd catch on, but I just shook my head not quite understanding. "Your friends…"

My heart dropped and in that moment I wanted to die. Embarrassment swallowed me whole and no doubt was written all over my face so I did the only thing I could… I began to ramble, "I am so sorry. Really I am. They just brought up the cars and I swore that it's only because I trust you and it's the least I can do because you save my life. And—"

"Rose," Dimitri finally cut me off and laughed, "It's alright." His hand left mine and came to my cheek, "Thank you for trusting me with something so important to you."

Sparks tinkled on my cheek where Dimitri's hand was and the warmth spread through my body making a small smile tug on my lips, "I trust you will a lot more than that."

I had a feeling Dimitri was about to say something so sweet that my heart was going to fly away, but whatever it was died on his lips when Abe's voice came from the other side of the door, "Rose I'm waiting." The moment Dimitri and I had shared instantly disappeared as I sighed and opened the door to Abe's office. "Finally," I walked over to his desk where Abe sat and he slid a file across it to me. "This is the deal for tomorrow, I want you to look it over and tell me what you think." I took the file and sat on the couch in the corner of his office. Setting the file down on the small wooden table in front of me I began to examine all the papers inside. "I'm going do to discuss tonight's affairs with Pavel about the arrival of our guest tonight. Which means we'll be short a VIP guard so Mikhail will take that over and Dimitri will move inside." I simply nodded in acknowledgement as my father explained. Abe then stood and straightened his suit then walked over to stand near me. "Rose," I looked up at him, "behave tonight. This is very important and no matter your personal feelings towards any of the people partaking in this deal they are still part of the Families and you will treat them with respect. Understood?" Abe hadn't even this speech to me yet so I was expecting it soon, but not with Dimitri leaning against the wall by the doorway. My eyes flicked to him and then back to Abe who I think had forgotten he was there and then realized his mistake. He looked over at Dimitri, "You are dismissed." He ordered.

"No," my voice was more powerful than I meant and Dimitri froze halfway out the door and looked at me questioningly. I looked back at Abe and spoke calmly, "If you want him to protect me he has to understand the life we live and who he is protecting me from. I understand and I will not be the first to step out of line –you raised me better than that –however if he threatens me I will defend myself."

Pride radiated off of Abe's somber face and he gave me a small smile, "That's my girl." He kissed my forehead softly then walked to the door that Dimitri still stood by, "You will stay with her and then once Rose has explained the situation to you Mikhail will explain your duty for tonight." Dimitri gave Abe a stiff nod then my father left and Dimitri came to sit next to me as I continued to look over the proposal.

"So what was that all about?" Dimitri asked, referring to Abe's lecture, after five very tense minutes.

Sighing deeply I closed the file and grabbed a sheet of paper off the corner of the table and began to write out the Family tree.

Mazur

Dragomir Ivashkov

Ozera

Rinaldi

Lazar

Zelkos

Dashkov

I internally cringed as I wrote the final two Family names on the paper then began to explain, "These are the eight Families." I turned the my left where he sat and brought my legs up on to the couch curling them into my side so I got comfortable as I continued the story. "Together we hold most of the illegal power across the entire US and some other countries. Each Family has a specific job that helps keep all of the business we do a secret and keeps the Families rich –for instance, our family deals with clubs. The Dragomir's own half of the hotels across the country which is where all of the business partners stay if they are not part of the Families. The Ozera's have chains of restaurants all over the States which makes it easier to transport illegal substances throughout the restaurants and around to our clubs to dealt. The Rinaldi's are all Politicians of some sort so that if any of the Families are in any sort of trouble their influence will help get us out. Then, if they cannot help the Zelkos' are some of the most powerful lawyers in the world. The Lazars own most of the larger museums in the US, underneath the museums is where some of our most valuable possessions are kept in order to ensure that no law enforcement can track them; since there are so many artifacts it would be impossible to search all of them even if cops knew where we kept our possessions. And the Dashkov's own a lot of the theaters around the world so we can smuggle weapons with the props when plays travel throughout the world."

Dimitri sat silently as I explain and nodded to show he understood, "So that's why Christian and Tasha are such great cooks?" I laughed a little and nodded then became serious because I knew what he'd ask next. "What about the Ivashkov's? That's Adrian's family correct?"

"Yeah that's Adrian's family." I took a deep breath and knew there was no going back now. "You remember the night you took me home?" He nodded. "There was a man that came named Nathan."

"Adrian's father?" He asked calmly.

"Yes. The Ivashkov family is the Family of dirty cops. They always ensured that no real cops ever made a bust on the deals the Families made or knew where any of our possessions were kept. Anytime anyone slipped up they cover for us and they were the head Family in charge, that was until Nathan's morals got in the way. He applied for the CIA and when he was accepted all the Families believe he was going to help us, luckily Abe didn't. Nathan began raiding all of our safe houses where the drugs, weapons, and money were supposed to be kept. He found nothing. A few days before hand Abe had moved all of the things that were there to where they are now. They were spread out and entrusted to each family to be kept safe. Nathan lost some credibility with the law but kept his job and the Ivaskovs fell from power to second in command equal to the Dragomirs."

"And the Mazurs took control." Dimitri stated and I nodded.

"The Ivashkov family was always close with us and when Nathan turned against the Families his wife Daniella stood beside him however his aunt Tatiana –who was at the time and still is in charge of the Ivashkovs –disowned them and kicked them out. Enraged by her actions and the loss of his fortunes Nathan took out his frustrations one his two year old son and Tatiana's favorite great nephew, Adrian. Tatiana called Abe to inform him of what Nathan was doing and Abe went to Nathan and took Adrian way."

"And ever since then Adrian's lived with you?"

"Wow, you catch on fast." After my sarcastic remark I straightened out my legs putting my feet on the floor and my rested my arms on my legs as I stared at the ground just thinking.

"I'm trained to be able to understand things quickly and notice things –like how you cringed when speaking of the Zelkos' and Dashkovs."

My body tensed on impulse and I looked at him, "You saw that?"

"Victor was a Dashkov wasn't he?" Dimitri's eyes darkened and his face became serious. I nodded but couldn't bring myself to elaborate. "And the man who had first taken you was a Zelkos."

My heart stopped, a chill ran up my spine and I became scared. I had never had to explain this part of my story more than once, only to Adrian, so I didn't know how he knew. Was it possible Adrian had told him? Was he working with them to hurt me again? Once that question entered my mind I grabbed the file then shot off the couch and away from him over to Abe's desk. "How did you know that?"

Assessing the frightened expression on my face he stood slowly –holding up his hands. "Tasha told me." Tasha? How did she know? I mean, yes I blamed her for introducing me to Jesse and pressuring me to consider going on a date with him –where I was eventually kidnapped—but as far as I knew she'd never been told he'd taken me. He must have seen me trying to figure out everything, because he elaborated, "Once Abe came to me about protecting you I wanted to know as much as I could about you as possible so I asked her to fill me in on as much as she could about you. She told me about her introducing you to Jesse and how he was the one to originally kidnap you before Victor took control and then he—"

"Stop." My voice was weak, just as I felt, and he finally stopped rambling to actually look at me. The memories had been flashing back as he spoke and if Dimitri continued I wouldn't be able to stay conscious for much longer. "Just," I closed my eyes and gripped Abe's desk for support. Attempting to control my breathing to stop the on coming panic attack I tried to speak with a sense of control, "Please go, Dimitri."

"What?" He voice was calm but the outrage and hurt where clearly there. Dimitri was taken by surprise, which was rare but not unheard of.

I didn't have the strength to look at him or explain to him what exactly brought on my extreme mood change so I did the only thing I was good at: I shut him out. "I just need you to go." The life was returning back to my body; I was able to open my eyes and look up at him. "I have to look over the proposal and revise it before Abe returns and this has taken more time then I expected so please go find Mikhail, get your assignment for tonight, and leave me to work." I tried to sound professional, and not like I was falling apart inside, as I pushed him away. An expression I'd never seen Dimitri wear came over his face as he stiffly nodded and left. There was no doubt in my mind that I'd hurt him and by doing that I'd hurt myself, but it needed to be done.

I collapsed into Abe's chair and looked over the proposal once more as I revised some of the fine print then shut the file. My elbows then rested on the desk and my face fell into my hands as I fought to erase the memoires from my mind forever. It might have been Victor to hurt me more physically, but it was Jesse who had emotionally broken me long before Victor could get his hands on me. In all honesty the Zelkos' should be even with the Dashkovs in the Family tree from what he'd done to me, but seeing as the Zelkos' were lawyers there was no way Jesse was going to severely be punished for hurting me. The way the Families saw it 'if there were no visible scars then there was no proof of harm,' which is why the Dashkovs were lowest in power, because Victor couldn't help leaving me scared. Jesse had scarred me, but it wasn't visible so there was no proof, yet there was harm. So much harm I'd never live it down, but not even my father understood that. Tears threatened to fall, but I fought them back until Abe returned.

"What do you think Kiz?" Abe obviously knew something was wrong, but he also knew me and knew I was not going to talk about it.

"It's acceptable. I revised the deal a little so the weapons were more evenly split between the Ozeras, Dashkovs, and Lazars. Then most of the drugs will still come here and to Academy to be dealt with between you, the Ivaskovs, and the Dragomirs, and the Zelkos and the Rinaldis are not going to have a problem covering the place I've designated for the shipments to come it."

He smiled at me as he looked over the revised proposal, then fell when he realized there was another back-up deal as well. "Rose, what is this?"

I stood up and walked over to stand in front of him. "Baba, I really think you need to cut the lower Zelkos' out of the cover up." He looked up at me in outrage. "I'm not saying cut them all out completely; I'm saying cut out the less experienced and least trust- worthy ones. Keep in the higher ups such as Ivan and Ekaterina, but just not _him_. I don't trust them."

"No you just don't trust him. Rose this is childish and you need to grow up. He did not harm you like Victor did, so I suggest you mature quickly if you want to continue advising me on these deals." He threw down the file on his desk and stocked over to his chair to continue working.

I understood that I was dismissed and that there was no point in arguing my point. With one last sad glance at Abe, I walked out not forgetting to slam the door behind me in true Rose Mazur fashion. Once I'd stormed my way through the crowd of people already on the dance floor I made it to the bar and didn't waste any time swallowing down a glass of scotch then throwing myself into work.

Hours later the bar was full and I was finding it hard to get drunk. People were keeping me busy, but it wasn't just that, it was the fact that I didn't want to drink. What the fuck was that? I always want to drink! But not tonight, the one night I _needed_ to drink. Between having to watch Dimitri grind and dirty dance with Tasha for most of the night, annoying drunk people hit on me, and Lissa informing me that her brother, Andre, was coming into town for the deal I was finding it hard to properly function without some form of intoxication, but I couldn't even look at a drink without being disgusted. Obviously I had a problem and I really just wanted to punch someone.

"Rose! _Rose!_" From the irritation in Sydney's voice I figured she'd been trying to get my attention for a while. I looked at her and she gave me a sympathetic look, "Room 207 wants more Daniel's, I'd take it but you look like you need to get away more than me."

I thanked her, grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniel's from behind the bar, and fought my way through the crowd to the VIP door. Mikhail opened it for me and I headed up the stairs with a nervous feeling broiling in my stomach. I wasn't sure why I felt like something was wrong until I got to the VIP rooms and saw none other then Andre Dragomir walking out of one of the rooms near the end of the hall and in my direction. For a second I froze and it was then he realized it was me standing in front of him. "Rose," he breathed as if relived to have finally seen me, "how- how are you?"

Looking into his eyes now I remembered why I loved him so much when we were younger and why I hated him so much now. "How am I? Really that's what you chose to ask me. Out of everything you could say to me after what you did, 'how are you?' what your brilliant choice."

"What were you expecting Rose?" Exasperation filled his voice.

"'I'm sorry.' That's a good way to start. 'I'm sorry Rose for not waiting for you to be rescued from the psychopath that kidnapped you and not even caring that you were still alive when I was too busy fucking other girls.' How 'bout that?" The Daniel's I held slid out my hand on to the floor and rolled to the wall, thankfully not breaking. "'Sorry I never loved you and that I wasted a year of my life with you, but wasting another year waiting for you to be found just wasn't worth it!'"

Andre's eyes flared with anger, "_I'm sorry Rose! _Okay? I'm so sorry it hurts me all the time. I'm sorry I couldn't handle you being gone for so long and not knowing if you were alive. I'm sorry for assuming you were dead. I'm sorry for moving on and assuming you wanted me to be happy. I'm sorry for leaving when I heard you were home because I couldn't face you after what I'd done. And I'm sorry for not talking to you for three years. Are you happy now?"

A humorless laugh escaped my lips as a sad smile pulled on the corner of my mouth, "I haven't been happy since I was seventeen." I looked up into his eyes and vaguely saw the old Andre that I had dated for over a year. Memories of us started to resurface; all the times we'd spent together, some dates he'd taken me on, him taking me to a carnival on my sixteenth birthday, riding the Farris wheel with arm around me and I was freaking out because the eighteen year old I liked had his arm around me, then when we got to the very top he asked me to be his girl friend, then when I'd been brought home and Lissa told me he'd left, finding a note he'd left me, then days later a girl showed up to his room asking for him, Mia telling me what Andre had done while I was missing, I was devastated.

"Rose…" Andre called me out of my thoughts, "I'm not asking you to forgive me, that'd be foolish, especially when I haven't forgiven myself, but don't shut me out. I've known you since you were born and I've loved you for your whole life, I can't just loose a friendship like this. And I know as mad as you are at me, you can't let this go either."

His hands where on my arms holding me gently in case I chose to run. The way Andre looked at me I could see how much he was hurting, and not just over what he'd done, but over how much he'd missed our friendship. I knew exactly how he felt because I felt that was too: like I was missing a piece of my past and of myself. Loosing Andre had been like loosing a piece of my heart, he was my best friend and it was now I realized I didn't hate him as much as I wished I could. "I'm not forgiving you for cheating or leaving, but I'm forgiving you for being pigheaded and an ass."

The hands that were on me quickly flew around my body and pulled me into him. "Thank you, Rosie." I smiled and hugged him back just as tightly. "God, I missed you," he whispered into my hair.

"I missed you to," I admitted as I pulled away from him and picked up the Jack Daniel's.

"Would that be a welcoming present for me?" He smiled widely at me.

"No, it's for a _paying_ costumer." I joked with him.

"Well then, me and my non-paying ass are gonna go downstairs to get some free liquor."

"You do that." I smiled at him and he smiled back.

"See ya tonight Rosie." He waved then continued to the stairs as I turned and walked a few steps to room 207 then knocked.

The door opened and without looking I handed the guy at the door his drink. "Here's your order."

I was close to walking away when he spoke, "Why so quick to leave Rose? I thought maybe you'd like to come in and _chat_."

Fear coursed through my body as my head shot up and I saw who was standing in front of me. It was Jesse Zelkos. Swallowing hard I attempted to gather my courage, but all it did was widen the Cheshire cat grin already on his face and weaken my will to fight. "Don't start with me Jesse," I sounded stronger than I felt, "you won't get away with anything here."

"Who's gonna know Rose?" He reached forward and ran his ice cold fingers down my cheek. My jaw clinched as his hand moved back up my jaw line and to the back of my neck. "Come inside Rose."

It wasn't a request but I knew if I went in I'd never come out without a fight, "No." I answered firmly.

His fingers wound into the hair at the back of my neck, "What?" He seethed as the anger built in his eyes and his face came closer to mine. "I wasn't asking."

I moved as far as I could, which was barely an inch, away from his face and pushed against his chest, "Let me go!"

"No." Then his hand completely tightened on my neck and hair then he shoved me into the wall. My face was pressed against the wall and my forehead was being pressed into the large glass number 7 that was secured on to the wall to number the rooms. Pain snuck into my forehead as he pushed me harder and harder into the wall expecting me to acknowledge the pain. "You should have come inside Rose." Still silence, so he pulled me back a little, then rammed my head into the number causing a gash in my forehead and blood to run down the right side of my face. Then he applied more pressure and began to chock me.

My hands shot up quickly to his and tried to pry him off, but it was no use, I couldn't get a good grip on him because I kept hitting my ear piece. That when a thought occurred to me. I kept one hand on his trying to loosen his grip, while the other clicked my ear piece on and I chocked the words out, "Jesse let me go and go back into you room." I was hoping one of the guards was listening and understood my hint. Jesse didn't like that I'd told him what to do and applied so much pressure to my head that the blood flow speed and I actually did cry out in pain. "Jesse please!"

"No, you little—" He was cut off when someone yanked him away from me and slammed him into the opposite wall.

My feet hit the ground, but someone caught my left side before I could fall. I immediately realized it was Adrian and leaned into him as I was attempting to control my rapid breathing with my hands on my knees.

"Rose I need you to nod if you will let me touch you," I recognized Andre's voice and nodded. He squatted in front of me so I could see his face and Adrian carefully brushed the hair from the right side of my face. "You're going to be ok and I just need to patch up your forehead."

Once I could breathe normally I looked up to find Eddie and another guard taking care of Jesse. "Eddie get him out."

He nodded and shoved Jesse in the direction of the door, "You heard her: _leave_, before I make you." The venom in his voice was easy to hear as he glared at Jesse. I imagine Andre and Adrian would be doing the same thing if they weren't so concerned with me.

Jesse laughed, took one last second to glare at me, and then walked towards the door as we all watched him. Once he was gone I stood up completely and leaned against the wall looking up at the ceiling. Andre said something about going to get a first aid kit then disappeared into Abe's office while Adrian turned away to called someone –who I had no doubt was Abe—to explain what happened and Eddie was speaking with another guard who had helped with Jesse. My thoughts drifted to Dimitri, specifically where was he, what was he doing, and why wasn't he here. Chances were he'd had his ear piece off since he was on the dance floor and unable to hear it. Or he was still with Tasha, in which case he wouldn't bother even coming to my rescue.

A few minutes later Andre pulled me from my thoughts and began to clean the gash above my right eyebrow. Once all the blood was gone and he'd let me talk him into not bandaging it because I promised I'd go straight home soon. Andre put away the first aid kit, Adrian hung up the phone then turned back to me, and Eddie sent away the other guard. "I'm going to go back to our room," Eddie said and I realized that's where Andre had first come from when I'd found him then that was how Adrian and Eddie got to me so fast. Adrian nodded and Eddie walked back down the hall passing Andre on the way. "You ready to go?" Andre asked.

"I need to go down to the bar and get my stuff," I said pushing myself off the wall.

"Alright, let's go and we can grab food on the way home." Adrian said as the three of us began walking down to the club.

We walked out the VIP door and Mikhail looked at me concerned. I smiled at him reassuringly then walked through the dance floor to get to the bar as Andre and Adrian started a conversation with him that no doubt was about what just happened. When I was in the middle of the floor someone caught my eye: Dimitri, with his hands all over Tasha. For some reason I felt shattered, for the life of me I didn't know why, after all I was the one who freaked on him earlier. He'd made no hint to having feelings for me and I had no claim to him so why did I feel so jealous and betrayed. It's not even like I really like Dimitri… did I? I was about to keep walking when someone got in my way, "Going some where Rose?"

This was the second time tonight that voice had stuck fear into my very soul. "Jesse I told you to leave." My voice held strength and conviction. I was brave only because we where in a crowd of people and I knew he couldn't touch me.

"I didn't want to." He smiled and his hand clasped around my arm. "Come with me Rose. It's not a request and no one can stop me from taking you. Your two heroes from earlier are busy and I won't make the mistake of letting you turn on your comm. again." I looked back at Andre and Adrian to find Jesse was right, they were too busy speaking with Mikhail to see me and Dimitri was preoccupied with Tasha's ass all over his crotch.

Jesse started pulling me and I tried to resist but wearing high heel boots tonight was not a good idea. "Jesse let go," I struggled away from him and finally succeeded. I quickly walked away from him and found Andre with Adrian looking for me. "Hey," I said out of breath, "let's go the other way to the bar ok?" Trying to push them in the other direction obviously was a little too obvious that something was wrong because Adrian looked at me with his usual 'stop-fooling-around-and-tell-me-what-the-fuck-happened' look and Andre scanned the crowd for a problem. And he found one.

I turned and found Jesse standing behind me. He smirked as the two guys glared at him. "Rose told you to leave," Andre growled.

"I told her I didn't want to, not without some entertainment at least." He sneered and I could feel Andre tense behind me which made Jesse smirk more because he knew that he was getting to Andre. "I was planning on taking Rose, but I'd settle for someone a little thinner, maybe blonder. Perhaps your sister would satisfy me tonight?"

Moving quickly I grabbed Andre's arm with one hand and gripped his fist with the other, "Andre don't! He's not worth it."

"Yes listen to my little bitch Andre, wouldn't want to upset her now would we? Might get kicked out." He joked with that annoying as fuck grin on his face.

"That's it," I had been so focus on keeping Andre from beating the shit out of Jesse that I'd forgotten about Adrian who now threw himself at Jesse.

"No!" I screamed, but it was too late. Jesse had blocked Adrian's punches and shoved him to the floor. I watched in slow motion as Adrian's head collided with the black granite stairs at the edge of the dance floor and he the n lie still as blood started running from the side of his head.

By the time I'd focused on something other than Adrian I realized Andre had broken away from me and had Jesse on the floor pounding into his face. Guards moved in on the two men fighting and pulled Andre off of Jesse. Then I registered another female voice screaming, "Let him go!" Looking around to find who it was my eyes settled on Tasha Ozera. "You can't do this he's a part of the Families!" I figured she was referring to how the guards were cuffing Jesse but when she mentioned the Families my brain kicked into high gear and took in my surroundings completely. The crowd of people dancing had stopped to watch the mania taking place, the people at the bar had come on to the floor to get a better view, and the music had stop as well as the lights had been turned on because Christian was sitting on the stairs with Adrian.

"_Everyone out!_" I yelled as I pushed my way to Adrian. "Mikhail call an ambulance and get Jesse _out_!" People started running for the door and Mikhail pulled out his phone then began speaking rapidly. Within seconds everyone was cleared out then Christian and I carefully lifted Adrian off the stairs and on top the flat ground in front of the VIP door. Andre was by my side in an instant trying to stop the bleeding and right now I was never happier he'd gone to medical school. Guards and people that worked here were still running around trying to clean the place and move tables out of the way so the paramedics could get to Adrian. Once Andre okayed Adrian I moved closer to him and carefully rested his head in my lap. "You're gonna be ok," I whispered to him as tears ran like crazy down my face. "You're going to be fine. God, Adrian I'm so sorry." The tears came harder than ever when the medics came and took him away from me. Andre and Christian followed to make sure Adrian would be ok, but I couldn't move. On my knees I watched them put him on the stretcher and take him out the front door. I whipped away some of my tears but new ones replaced them too quickly so I gave up.

"You can't hurt Jesse. He's a part of the Families," I hadn't realized Tasha had stayed behind until now when she practically spat the words at me.

If it was anyone else who had gotten hurt I probably would have gotten up and punched her, but it was Adrian. _My_ Adrian. The one who had always been there for me. Always been level headed and kept me from fighting. Always known what to say and what to do. And what had I done in return? I'd been too worried about Andre to even think about him. That alone made me feel worse than anything anyone could have said or done to me. Knowing that he was fatally injured and could die soon and that I wasn't there with him was what kept me on the ground, too weak to stand up to her. I glared up at Tasha and spoke to her in the most dangerous, venom filled tone to could muster, "Tasha I don't give a _fuck_ what you mean to Christian or Dimitri, if you don't leave now I will make you."

Her eyes widen at the severity of what I said, "This isn't over Rose." She spat back then she turned and quickly walked out.

My head fell down again as I left the sobs over come my body. I fell to the side and wound up sitting on the floor and curling my legs into me. The club was a wreck and empty which pretty much was a symbol for my life and the people who claimed to care about me. I was alone, the only ones who really loved me were with Adrian –the person I should be with now. I had no idea where Dimitri was or anyone else for that matter, but I didn't care, because they weren't here with me. They all left me alone. It was better this way. I was better this way. After a few minutes of crying my eyes out I stopped and then found the will to stand up and walk to the bar.

I poured myself a cup of whiskey and brought it to my lips then froze. Without thinking I hurled it at the wall as I screamed and watched the cup shatter and the liquor splatter on the wall. The tears came back then I swiped my hand across the bar knocking all the forgotten cups, beer bottles, and the bottle of whiskey on to the floor. Looking at the damage I sobbed harder, but still was not content. I grabbed a half drunken glass of vodka and threw it at the wall again and then another left over glass and another. Soon my strength was gone and I fell to the floor and cried. I cried for Adrian. I cried for the pain I had spent so long drinking away. I cried for what Jesse and Victor had done to me. I cried because I knew how much Abe didn't really love me. I cried for all of the things I'd run away from in the past three years. But mostly I cried for my mother, Janine. I cried because she left me alone. I cried because right now I needed a mother. And I had none.

I had no one. Not one person stayed behind to help me. Not Lissa. Not Christian. Not Eddie. Not Sydney. Not Andre. Not even Dimitri. None of the people I trusted stayed to make sure that _this_ didn't happen. Yet here I was, feeling _everything_, and I had no way of getting home. Not that I wanted to be there, but anywhere was better than here. Eventually I ran out of tears and rested my head on the cabinets then pulled my legs into my chest. I just sat there and breathed because there was nothing else I could do.

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><p><strong>like I said just review and I'll have the next one out ASAP.<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

_"No one's going to try to find you Rose, you know why? Because you're a worthless piece of shit. Why do you think you've been here for three months? You're not even important enough for Abe to find. You know he told me he wished he'd had a son, but he just had to be stuck with you. It wasn't enough to have your mom leave him to care for you alone, but you're such a dumb bitch you can't take care of yourself. It wouldn't surprise me if he hired a fucking babysitter to take care of you if you're ever found. Or maybe he'll just let you get killed. Then he wouldn't have to do it himself. _

_ You know I'm right Rose. You know he hates you. Loathes you. Wishes you weren't born. Just like everyone else. Like Andre. Like Lissa. Like Eddie. And Christian. Soon even Adrian will get sick of you and leave you alone. But then again you're alone now, aren't you Rose? No one has even found you yet! Not that they've bothered. You'll die here Rose. Alone. It's better this way. You're better this way." Then Jesse walked out laughing and slammed the door; letting Victor have me._

I shot out of bed, breathing rapidly and sweating. I rubbed the tears from my face and slowly got out of bed. Different images from my time with Jesse started to resurface as I tip-toed though my closet and down the stairs.

I went straight to the large liquor cabinet next to the fridge and pulled out a glass with a bottle of whiskey. Setting the glass on the counter, I poured myself a glass and downed it quickly, then refilled it. I was about to drink it when I heard the door to my room open and close. "How did I get home?" I asked then took a drink of my whiskey and set the glass down.

"I brought you back," he said as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"After you left with my car and forgot about me." I took another swig of my drink then looked over at Dimitri to see him watching me carefully, as if I'd go ballistic on him in a second if he said the wrong thing –did I really look that unstable?

He leaned casually on the door frame with his arms crossed highlighting his large arm and chest muscles that I could see through his white V-neck. "No it was after I had to take Tasha home because you kicked her out."

I snorted when he mentioned Tasha then proceeded to drink the rest of my almost empty whiskey cup and refill it, "You can keep the car. Don't want it back now that _she's_ contaminated it."

Dimitri's face reddened with anger and I just continued drinking, "Why do you treat her so terribly Rose? You have no reason to hate her!"

I slammed the glass on the counter, "I have plenty of fucking reasons Dimitri."

He pushed off the wall with his foot and continued to yell at me, "Really? What could possibly be a good enough reason for the things you've done to her?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you!" I snatched the glass of the granite counter top and slammed it into the sink.

"Well it wouldn't be the first time you shut me out today, would it Rose?" Dimitri now stood on the other side of the island, with his hands gripping the granite, glaring at me.

"Technically that was yesterday." My voice was monotone as I glared back at him.

"Rose," some of his anger slipped away as he sighed exasperatedly. "What Tasha did couldn't have been so bad. I think –"

"No," I cut him off. My voice ran flat and I thankfully felt a light buzz kick in from the liquor. "You don't get to tell me what you think about Tasha. Frankly I don't give a shit if she's your girlfriend, I don't like her and I never will. So you can just stop with your 'she's so great and wonderful' speech because I don't want to hear it."

"Tasha is not my girlfriend. We've been friends since I was a child and she doesn't deserve the way you treat her."

"Really?" A mixture of a scoff and a laugh escaped my lips. "Yeah she definitely looked like a childhood friend when she was grinding her ass all up and down your—"

"Rose!" He cut me off.

"What?"

"What the fuck is your problem?" Dimitri honestly looked like he didn't understand why I was pissed at him and that was what set me off the most.

"What the fuck is my problem? Seriously Dimitri! I was attacked tonight, by Jesse –a person you some how know kidnapped me though I'm not sure how. I called for help over the comms then my body guard –a person I'm pretty sure is paid to protect me—didn't do his fucking job because he was to busy feeling up Tasha. On top of that Adrian –my best friend and the only person who's _always_ been there for me—is in the hospital right now, possibly in a coma, because of me. Because he protected me! Because he did your fucking job Dimitri!" It was now I realized I was crying, again. Now that I'd actually admitted how much this hurt me I realized I wasn't just mad at Dimitri, but myself as well. Adrian was hurt because of me. And with that thought the depression began to set in again.

"Rose, I didn't know. My comm must have fallen out some time during the night, but I didn't realize it was missing until after I left the club."

"Those comms are the best money can buy, I highly doubt it 'fell out'." I really wasn't up for discussing how he somehow didn't have his comm. so I started walking towards my door when Dimitri's hand shot out and caught my arm.

"Do you honestly think I'd ever let you be harmed?" There was a weakness and vulnerability in both his voice and his eyes that I'd never seen before. "Rose if I'd known that you were hurt I would've come running without thinking." His hand trailed up my arm as he spoke and up to the gash on the side of my face. "I never wanted this to happen to you and if I can help it, it will never happen again." Dimitri lightly ran his fingers over the wound over and over as he look down into my eyes.

I _really_ wanted to believe him, but I just couldn't. Too many people have hurt me. Too many have left me behind. I couldn't let that happen again. I pulled my face away from his hand, "That doesn't change the fact that Adrian is still hurt and it certainly doesn't change how I feel right now. You left me. That's not something I can just forgive."

Understanding washed over Dimitri's face and then suddenly all emotion was gone from his features. "Where you forgive me or not I am still your bodyguard and I will continue to guard you. If that is not alright with you then I am sorry, but you will treat me with respect and not act like a child."

I started at him in disbelief with my mouth hanging open then spoke with the exact same tone he used with me, "Last time I checked my father was your boss so you don't get to tell me what to do. I have never disrespected you, if anything I've been more than generous by treating you like family. You're staying on _my_ floor, in _my_ guest room, drive _my_ car, and I wouldn't characterize any of that as not respecting you."

"Rose—" he cut me off, but I wasn't finished ranting yet.

"And as for acting like a child, I grew up a long fucking time ago. I practically run half of this organization and I could certainly live without your protection because I can take care of my own damn self." I turned and walked over to my door until a though occurred to me and I stopped to look back at him, "If this ever happens again I beg you to let me be killed, because dying will always be better than living my life." With that I opened the door and started running up the stairs. I went out to my balcony and locked the door so Dimitri couldn't bother me. Not like he even tried to anyway.

* * *

><p>I unlocked the front door and walked through the house, past the elevator, to the kitchen. As I got closer two male voices got louder and they both sounded more than a little angry. Once I open the door the two men stopped yelling and turned to me, "Hey." I mumbled to Dimitri and Abe then I headed straight for the pantry.<p>

"Where were you?" Abe demeaned as I grabbed my bag of chocolate donuts and then walked to the refrigerator.

"The hospital." I sat on a stool at the island after grabbing my milk and proceeded to start stuffing my face with donuts.

"What?" Abe boomed as he stormed over to me.

"I. Went. To. The. Hospital. With. Andre. To. See. Adrian." I said slowly as his death glare slowly disappeared.

"Ohhh so you were not alone." Abe looked relieved as he took a donut from the bag. "Good. While dealing with Jesse he let slip that him and some lower members of the Zelkos' were planning to ambush the location for the deal, which would have caused more complications, so I took your suggestion and will be using the revised proposal. I will have you look over it once more before we commence the deal tonight." Abe then walked out leaving me alone with a fuming Russian.

I continued eating as he walked over to stand in front of me and launched into a lecture. "Rose you can't just leave the house whenever you want to. Going to the hospital was stupid and not safe."

I swallowed my milk then looked up at him, "First off I didn't even leave the property –which if you haven't noticed is heavily guarded with armed guards and has the highest tech surveillance. Second, I walked to the hospital with Andre who had a gun on him. Third, the hospital is less than a mile from the house. And lastly, since when did you care about my safety?" I stood and threw away the empty bag and milk carton then turned to walk back to my room.

"So just because I screwed up once you're going to assume that I don't care about doing my job." He stated as he glared at me from where he still stood at the island.

"No, I judge people based on their actions because that's the way I am." I threw his words from the argument we'd had the day I'd met him back at him. "I will never trust you to do your job until you earn that trust back because that's what you care about. Protecting whoever you're told to as long as you get a check, that's your job_, that's what you care about_. But I will never trust you to care about me ever again, because if you did you wouldn't have been off with Tasha all night. You would've been with me and I wouldn't have had to go to the hospital this morning." Before he could say anything I quickly went through my door and turned on my personal security system. It locked the door I'd just walked through and prevented the elevator from going to my floor unless my emergency code was entered with disabled the system. After that I walked up the stairs to my room, plopped onto my bed, and attempted to fall asleep.

* * *

><p>I wasn't sure how long I'd been attempting to sleep when I heard the elevator ding. As I sat up and pushed the comforter off my upper body I saw Andre walking in with a folder which I assumed was the proposal I'd suggested.<p>

"Good afternoon gorgeous," he smirked as he placed the file in my awaiting hand and sat at the edge of my bed.

I groaned in response and he just laughed. "So now he decides to take my advice?" I snapped as I looked over the revised and now final deal. "I guess I'll just go get slapped around next time he won't listen to me to change his mind."

"Rosie, that's not fair," he chastised me then crawled up the bed until he was next to me and rested his back on the headboard of the overly large bed.

"It's true!" I exclaimed as I threw the file on to the floor then turned to look at him. "Andre he hasn't even asked if I'm ok. Neither of them did. They don't care. So why should I? I'm just a worker to Abe and just a job to Dimitri so why should I think of them any better than they think of me?"

"You're his daughter Rose and though he doesn't act like it I know he loves you. He sent me to bring you the file because he knew you'd kill anyone else for waking you up."

"I wouldn't have killed Adrian." I mumbled before he could say anything else.

His face became sad and thoughtful for a moment then he continued, "If Adrian could've brought it to you we wouldn't be using this deal then we'd be ambushed the Zelkos' and there'd be hell to pay. Adrian knows this and is more than happy to be lying in a hospital bed now as apposed to possibly being in jail later for illegal activity if we were caught because of Jesse and his dumbass friends."

He chuckled as I sighed and leaned my head on his shoulder. "You're right, I just wish you weren't."

This actually made Andre laugh and put his arm around me so I snuggled closer. "You always hated when I was right."

"I still do." I genuinely smiled at him.

"I'm right about something else too." Andre became slightly more serious as he looked at me.

"What?"

"You're not just a job to the Russian. If he really thought so little of you he wouldn't be pacing in front of the elevator now or for the past three hours that you've been up here."

I looked at Andre questioningly wondering if he was telling the truth and then realized I could go look for myself. After I untangled myself from Andre, I got up and ran over to the elevator that was near my closet. I tapped the touch screen next to the door of the elevator and it pulled up the menu. I tapped 'Security Cameras' which lead to a list of all the different cameras all over the property. I clicked 'Bottom Floor Elevator' and it pulled up four windows with different angle videos streaming live. Sure enough there was Dimitri, pacing in all four videos. He was walking from the elevator doors all the way to the kitchen door –which was close—all the way back and forth. Dimitri had so much emotion of his face it worried me, but I wasn't quiet ready to let him up here yet.

Andre got off the bed and walked over to me, "He asked if you wouldn't let him up that you at least let him have his cell. It's in his room on the nightstand."

I let out an exasperated sigh and agreed to let him have the phone. Andre and I walked together to Dimitri's room and I grabbed his white iPhone 4s –same phone I had as well as everyone that worked for Abe. Before I gave it to Andre I unlocked the phone –which he didn't have a code on—and saw he'd missed a text from Tasha. "Ohhhhhh, look who it is." I gused as I pulled up the text and read it out loud, "Dimka, I forgot my purse in your car. Can you please bring it back to me today? Love, Tasha." Evil ideas quickly invaded my mind as I grinned up at Andre. "I need to look in her purse!"

"Rose isn't what a woman has in her purse like a teenager's diary?" Andre asked as he plopped on to Dimitri's bed.

"Exactly! It's the tell-all about her. I need to know what she's up to and her purse is an extremely easy way to find out."

"No I meant it's supposed to be sacred and only for the person who owns it."

"Well that too. But with purses it's mostly we don't like guys seeing it. Woman to woman is fine." I explained, "So you're gonna help me right?"

"Uhhhh," Andre stuttered and then realized what I meant. "No! God please no Rose!" He whined. "I'm 23 years old and that would be so embarrassing."

"Ohh get over it Andre!" I grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the room and over to my closet. We walked down the stairs and I shoved him towards the door."Just make it believable."

"Fine, but you owe me a car for this." He grumbled.

"Alright," I laughed at him.

"And it better be a fucking good one!"

"Ok, just go!" I smiled at him.

Andre was about to open the door but then turned back to me, "Rose… Are you ok?"

I looked at him from a while as I considered my answer, "I'll let you know when I know."

Andre nodded and walked out into the kitchen then closed the door behind him.

**Dimitri's POV**

I sat in the kitchen sampling some soup Osanka had made for the dinner tonight when Andre walked out of the door leading to Rose's room. _Rose_. Even just thinking about her made me feel guilty. How could I have let her get hurt? Then this morning when she threw my own words back at me I wanted to die a painful death from causing her so much pain. She was right; I should've done my job. It was wrong to let Tasha distract me and even worse to just watch Adrian fight with Jesse. Don't even get me started on leaving Rose to take Tasha home because that was stupid.

"Oh my God, what is that smell?" Osanka's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"I uhhhhhh…" Andre stuttered turning redder by the second. "I might have just…"

"Andre," Mark, Osanka's husband and another chief that worked here, scolded him and then coughed. "Ohhh my goodness that smells horrid." He covered his nose as the other chiefs started coughing and I finally smelled what they were all complaining about.

"Alright everyone out!" Osanka ordered as she ushered us all out.

It was then that I realized Andre was probably plotting with Rose and I ran out to the elevator to see if she'd out-smarted me but found nothing out of place. I looked over at Andre and he was laughing with Mark, maybe Rose wasn't trying to escape and I was just paranoid.

**Rose's POV**

Once the kitchen was empty I snuck out to the garage and jogged over to Dimitri's Audi. He left the car unlocked so I opened the passenger door and sure enough there was Tasha's overly large purse. I grabbed it, shut the door, and walked over to one of the concrete counters near where all the keys hung. The purse was purple with the large Gucci logo on the front, a large tassel hanging off one of the shoulder straps. I recognized the purse from one of the many designer magazines Lissa had shown me. It was the 282308 A7M0G 9022, a semi-decent price, some would consider it expensive, but I really didn't mind. I didn't care for the purse or anything in the Gucci catalog and continued looking in the other magazines. Obviously Tasha had like the Gucci bag, though the color she'd picked was just atrocious.

I dropped the purse on the counter and opened it to find exactly what I'd been looking for right on top. Honestly with a purse this big the least she could do would've been to burry it on the bottom or something, not leave it sitting on top and so easy to find. I scoffed, grabbed the purse and walked back into the house.

Dimitri was sitting on a stool at the island with his back to me, but Osanka who was standing on the other side of the island talking to him looked up at me and smile. "I thought you'd be the reason Andre pulled his little stunt."

I gave her a sheepish smile, "Is it alright if I talk to Dimitri for a sec?"

"Sure sweetheart," she nodded and all the other chiefs walked out of the kitchen saying goodbye kindly.

I walked over and stood where Osanka was then set the purse down so it would fall over causing the contents to fall out. There, lying in the clutter of things on the granite top, was Dimitri's comm. "Tasha texted you and asked for her purse back." I said as I slid his phone over to him and he caught it under his fingers.

Dimitri's eyes looked over all of the things on the counter and I could see the anger on his face. Then, in one quick motion, he shoved it all back into Tasha's purse and stood up gripping the purse in one hand and his phone in the other. "Stay here." He ordered then turned and walked out of the house.

I stared at the door he'd walked out of for a while until Osanka had walked back in and interrupted my thoughts, "Sweety," I turned to look at her, "why are you crying?"

Her question surprised me, was I crying? I reached up and sure enough tears were running down my cheek. I opened my mouth to try to explain why, but I couldn't and then I cried harder.

"Ohh baby come here," Osanka hugged me tightly as I cried. "Come on dear, lets get you to where you need to be." She walked me outside with her arm over my shoulders and continually spoke words of encouragement to me as she led me to 'where I needed to be'. Once my break down was over I wiped my tears and looked around at the all white scenery. I was in the hospital lobby, "I know you need Adrian, so that's where I'm taking you."

"Thank you." I said as she stopped with me at his door.

Osanka gave me a parting hug, "I'm always here for you sweetheart," she whispered to me. She smiled at me once more then walked away.

I walked into Adrian's room and found him sitting up in the bed watching a football game on TV. "Where did you get your cloths?" I asked shocked that he had a black V-neck and blue jeans on.

"Andre brought them when he was here a few minutes ago," he said not looking away from the flat screen sitting on the white entertainment center.

"I swear y'all are going to get married one day," I laughed as I sat in the white chair next to his bed. In case you haven't noticed, everything in the hospital is white.

"No thank you, I much prefer female's moaning my name during sex and the only guy getting his hands on my meat is me. Besides I could never be gay, I'd miss sticking my dick into a girl's va—"

"Ahhhhh!" I yelled covering my ears. "Okay, I get it! You're straight. Ok. I got it. Never say that again. Ever. Never. Ever. Again." Adrian just laughed as I glared at him. "If you weren't in a hospital bed now I'd probably punch you."

"Well lucky me. I guess it's a good think I didn't leave with Andre then isn't it?" He looked at me seriously.

"You were cleared to leave?"

"Yup! I'm all patched up and brand new, just in time for tonight." He smiled at me, as my heart dropped and that caused his face to fall. "Rosie don't start, I'll be fine."

"It's barely been 24 hours since you were bleeding out of the back of your head, you call that fine!" I shot out of that chair as I chastised him.

Adrian sighed and stood up in front of me. "Rose, we go through this every time, I will be ok. Andre's got my back as well as Christian and all the other guys who will be there. We'll all come back just like last time and all the times before that." By now he held my face in his hands forcing me to keep eye contact with him. "I will come back to you."

"You better," I grunted as I hugged him tightly and buried my face in his chest.

"Besides you'll have the Russian to keep you company."

"Don't even get me started on him." I grumbled as we both sat on his bed and started flipping through channels.

"Uh oh, what'd the Russian do wrong now?" Adrian joked.

"What has he done right Adrian?" My frustration with Dimitri was becoming more than I could handle. "He left me last night. He got mad at me for acting the way I do towards Tasha when he doesn't even really know me. Then I find his comm. in her purse and he gets mad at me!"

"He's trying Rose. You shouldn't be so hard on him."

"Why are you on his side?" I got off the bed and looked at him shocked.

"Because you have no real reason to be mad at him." Adrian looked at me like it was the most obvious reason in the world.

"Of course I do! He—"

"He doesn't know you Rose!" Adrian chastised me as he stood up and walked over to me. "Tasha's been his friend since they were kids, he doesn't know why you hate her, and he's not just going to stop being friends with her and talking to her because of you. You're his job, Rose, not his girlfriend, his job! You can't control him and make him be at your beck-and-call 24/7. He has a life too and he wants to be able to live it just like you want t be able to live yours. The only reason you're mad is because you finally realized his attention isn't all focused on you. You've been friends with Dimitri for weeks and you just deciding now that you hate him is stupid and childish."

"I'm mad at him because he didn't protect you!" I yelled at Adrian and for a second he fathered.

"That's not his job Rose." He wasn't angry anymore and his voice became softer, much like it usually is when we talk. "It was my choice to fight Jesse and I don't regret it. Andre's already told you this and you have to understand that. I made my decision—"

"But if Dimitri had his comm. he would've protected me from Jesse in the first place."

"That's Tasha's fault not Dimitri's."

"I know." I mumbled as I looked at the floor.

"You needed someone to blame and Dimitri was there. You also needed a reason to push him away and that was it." Adrian wrapped his arms around me and held me to his chest.

"You have to go now don't you?"

"Yes, but you can still walk with me." He pulled away to look down into my eyes.

"Ok." We held hands as I walked back to the garage with him where Andre, Christian, and Eddie were waiting. I stopped a few feet away from them and pulled Adrian into a hug. "Be safe."

"I will." He promised then pulled away.

"I just got you back," my voice cracked as Adrian tucked some of my hair behind my ear.

"I'm coming back Rose, just like I always do." I threw my arms around him and gave him one last hug.

"Rosie, it's time for us to go," Andre said from behind Adrian.

I reluctantly let him go and watched as Andre and Adrian got into Andre's black 2011 Spartech Jaguar XJ. Christian got in the passenger seat of Eddie's 2011 black Cadillac Escalade. Both of the vehicles were started and before I knew it they were both driving away then gone.

I walked into the kitchen and check the security panel right next to the door I'd walked through. Abe and everyone else had already left which meant security was on lock door and all the guards were on red alert. Which meant if anything so much as moved outside they would shoot first and ask questions later. No one was getting in or out until the deal was taken care of and all of the Families were back here safe.

Once I finished double checking the system I thought about going to find Lissa but then decided against it. She was probably with Sydney and Mia, they would all be worrying and I didn't need to deal with that. Not that I wasn't worried, I just didn't need to be in a room with three sobbing girl waiting for their boyfriends to come home. Mia was waiting for Eddie and Lissa was waiting for Christian, and I'd bet anything Syd was worried about Adrian. She'd had a crush on him for years and just hasn't had the guts to tell him yet, little does she know he likes her as well. I would get involved and just tell them to fuck and date already, but Mikhail and I have a bet going so I can't interfere. However, if they make it to Christmas –which is in two weeks—without telling each other I get to blackmail them into telling each other.

I was about to go to the theater when Dimitri walked through the garage door. He looked up at me and I froze. I wanted to say something to him, anything, but before I got the chance he walked past me to the door leading out of the kitchen. "Dimitri wait."

"I have a shift Rose, I can't." He stood with one hand on the door as he looked at me.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know me going through Tasha's purse would make you so mad. And I'm sorry for blaming you for everything that happened last night." I blurted everything out before I could stop it and he looked surprised.

"I wasn't mad at you. I took Tasha back her purse and knocked it on to the floor. The comm. fell out and she acted surprised but I knew she was lying. I told her not to talk to me until she was ready to tell me the truth. I'm mad at her, not you. You have every right to blame me for what happened—"

"No Dimitri, I don't." I cut him off. "It wasn't your fault, it was Jesse's. I just needed a reason to push you away and this was the perfect excuse. I'm not mad at you, I never really was, and I was just being stupid. And, Tasha's been your friend for years; don't be mad at her because of me."

"I'm not mad at her just because of you. I nearly lost my job because of her."

"You wouldn't have lost your job."

"That's not what I meant," Dimitri walked over to me and took my face in his hands. "You're my job Rose, but you mean so much more than that to me. To think I could've lost you, that's what scared me more than anything. To think of Jesse having his hands anywhere on you infuriated me and knowing Tasha was the only reason I wasn't there to protect you from him broke my heart."

I was stunned, both at what he said and how close we were. I wasn't sure what to say because I was distracted by how much passion he spoke with and the emotions all over his face. This was another side of Dimitri, one that I wished he'd let me see again. I realized he was waiting for me to say something so I said the stupidest thing possible. "You're not scared of anything."

Dimitri let out a humorless laugh and let go of my face but did not set away from me. I immediately felt the loss of his warmth and the tingling feeling in my cheeks left. "I'm scare of a lot of things. I was scared for you." The pain in his eyes was evident as was the anguish on his face. Now I really didn't know what to say and I couldn't stand to see the pain on his face any longer so I looked down at the floor. Our feet were nearly touching and I took the time to see how much larger his were compared to mine. "Rose," his hand caught my chin and delicately pushed it up so that I would look at him and left his hand there. "Why do you want to push me away?"

This wasn't something I wanted to talk about now, or ever. But there was just something about Dimitri, something I'd realized yesterday as well, that made me want to let him in. "You have a shift," once the words left my mouth his hand left my chin and his face became hard without a trace of emotion. The rest of what I was going to say died in my mouth.

"You're right I do," he turned to walk out.

I couldn't just let him go knowing that all the progress we'd just made would be wasted if he walked out the door. "Dimitri you didn't let me finish." He stopped but didn't turn around. Just because I wanted to let him in didn't mean that I had to tell him everything, or anything, about what had happened when I was kidnapped. I could start with little things like my favorite things and work my way up to the bigger things. I would need to get to know him too, make sure I could trust him again, before I told him anything about what happened. I didn't have to completely tear down my walls. I would let Dimitri start chipping them way little by little only telling him what I wanted to and then when I'm ready I'll tell him everything. "I'll be down in the theater, um, when you're done with your shift, if you want to come meet me there, um, we could get to know each other." I was scratching the back of my neck, nervously waiting for his answer.

Dimitri finally looked back at me and gave me a full, breath taking smile, "I'd like that."

"Ok," I smiled back and if I wasn't mistaken I blushed a little.

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><p>I was sitting in the very top row of the theater watching Breaking Dawn when Dimitri walked in. It was at the part when Jacob saw Bella pregnant or the first time and I was starting to regret watching this movie. Dimitri sat down next to me and took some of my popcorn as he put his feet up on the back of the chair in front of him. "You don't seem like the Twilight loving type."<p>

"I'm not. Lissa left the movie in and I was too lazy to change it."

He laughed and ate more popcorn. "So what kind of movies does Rosemarie Mazur like?" Dimitri tried to sound professional but fail and I laughed.

"Anything with action, guns, and explosions. What sorts of movies does Dimitri Belikov enjoy?" I tried to imitate his voice but I was never good at Russian accents.

"Westerns," he laughed at me. "Please never do that again."

"Why not?" I asked faking outrage.

"You sound like a drunk cowboy."

"Good, then I nailed you perfectly," Dimitri just rolled his eyes as I laughed then he took my popcorn. "Hey!"

"Don't do that again."

"Fine," I agreed. We shared the popcorn and continued to talk about each other. Eventually I asked about his family and he told me that he'd talked to them this morning and that they were fine. I could tell he missed them and made a mental note to see if I could get them all to come spend time here form Christmas. I told him about how Lissa and I had become friends and how I nearly shot Christian when I walked in on the two of them having sex for the first time. "In my defense, she hadn't even told me they were dating!" We laughed at the story and I realize that the arm rest that was between us was no longer there and my head was resting on his shoulder. I looked up at the screen and all the food in my stomach nearly came back up, it was the birth scene. "Ew," I buried my face in Dimitri chest and surprisingly his arm wrapped around my back and held me there.

"It's almost over Roza." I remembered the last time he called me that and shivered. "Are you cold?"

"No," I looked up at him. "I just don't wanna see the rest of this."

"Well where do you want to go?"

"Come with me to the balcony?"

"Sure," he smiled. We stood up and walked out then to the elevator. Dimitri and I were walking so close together that if either of us moved even a little we'd touch and I kind of wanted to. But I resisted and just watched him as he opened the elevator for me and followed me in. We leaned against separate walls as the elevator climbed each floor then finally made it to ours. "After you," he motioned for me to go first and I did. He followed me over to the large windows and I pushed the glass open. I walked out and Dimitri followed as I led him over to the mattress that was lying over in the corner. I sat down on it and started to pull open on of the folded up blankets that was there when I realized Dimitri was staring at me.

"What?"

"How long has this been out here?" He looked worried that the bed was infected or something.

"The workers always bring this out here an hour or so after everyone leave to go make the deal. I always come out here when they're gone so I can be the first to see them come back." He nodded in understanding but didn't sit down. "Come on Comrade, I don't bite and the bed is safe." He smiled and sat next to me. We covered ourselves with a lot of blankets and laid our heads on the pillows as we stared up at the stars.

"It's beautiful out here." Dimitri said.

"My mom used to sit out here with me, before she left. I used to come out here every night to wish on a shooting star like I did when she was here." I looked over at Dimitri and saw him looking back at me. "It's kind of like she's still with me."

"The ones we love never really leave us."

"You say that like you have experience." I joked.

"I do," I saw a little pain cloud his eyes and it was then I truly realize Dimitri was a person too. He had a past and it seemed as if the life he had before he met me haunted him. I was about to ask him what was bothering him when he spoke. "I lost my best friend Ivan a few months before I met you and I always feel like he's never really left me." I wanted to comfort him, to take away his pain but a yawn escaped me before I could do anything and he laughed. "Sleep Roza, I'll wake you when they come home."

"But I don't want to stop talking yet," I mumbled dozing in and out of consciousness. "I don't want to wake up and you to shut me out again." I moved closer to him and snuggled into his chest.

"I can't shut you out now, not even if I wanted to." I didn't understand what he meant, but I let my eyelids shut as I felt his warm arms circle around me.

"Will you tell me about Ivan sometime?" I asked sleepily.

"Yes."

I was close to falling asleep when I mumbled, "Dimitri, no one's ever gotten me to sleep while everyone's out making a deal."

"Well I guess that makes me special," I couldn't see his face, but I knew he was smiling.

"Very special," his heart beat was the last thing I heard before I fell asleep and it was the most wonderful lullaby I'd ever heard.

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><p><strong>review :)<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Til Death Due Us Part will be out next then another chapter of my new Mortal Instrument's story It's Complicated.**

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><p>"Rose," a shake woke me up as someone kept repeating my name. Slowly I woke up to see Adrian smiling down at me, "Good morning."<p>

"Hey," I smiled as I rubbed my eyes. I sat up, stretched my arms out, and realized I was in my bed and not outside. "How'd I…?"

My question died off as Adrian smiled. "Dimitri brought you in here a little after we got back then I sent him to bed."

"How long have you been back?" I looked over at my clock and it was around noon.

"Since about five this morning."

"What? I told Dimitri to wake me up! That—'

"Whoa little flower, I told him to let you sleep. I know how stressed you've been so I figured it'd be nice if you rested before we all discussed the outcome of the deal over dinner. Plus the Russian looked like shit."

"Why?" My thoughts instantly jumped to Dimitri. _Was he ok? Where was he? What happened? Was he going to push me away again?_

"He wouldn't sleep until we got back. He mumbled something about not wanting anything to happen to you again."

"Where is he Adrian?"

He looked taken aback at the sound of my voice but I didn't have time to care. I needed to know where Dimitri was. "In his room."

Quickly I got out of my bed and made my way over to Dimitri's room. I opened his door then walked in to find all the lights off and quietly shut the door. I walked over to his bed where he was sleeping and sat on the edge. Without thinking my hand moved up to the side of his face and my fingers moved some of his hair from his cheek. His hand snapped up and grabbed mine, holding it to his face and a small smiled pulled at his lips. Slowly I pulled my hand from his and moved it down to his chest then shook him lightly. "Dimitri wake up."

Gradually his eyes opened and he blinked a couple times then he shot out of bed. "Roza."

"Whoa Comrade," my hand on his chest lightly pushed him back down. "Everything's fine."

His chest rose and fell under my hand, then his breathing eventually slowed but the feeling I got from touching him never went away. "What is it Roza?"

"I just wanted to thank you for last night," I smiled down at him and one of Dimitri's hands came up and rested on top of mine.

"It was my pleasure," he smiled at me and it took my breath away. I'd only ever gotten half smiles or smirks from Dimitri, never full one, never one like the one on his face now.

I knew I was blushing because I could feel the heat on my cheeks, but I hoped since the lights were off he couldn't tell. "It's a little after noon, do you want to come grab some lunch?"

"Sure, I'll just get dressed and meet you in the kitchen."

"Ok," I smiled but neither of us moved; me because I didn't want to and because Dimitri's hand was still on mine. "Dimitri, I kind of need my hand."

"Oh," I laughed as he let go of me and sat up.

"I'll see you downstairs," I walked towards the door as he got up and started getting dressed. As I stood at the door I wasn't quite sure what came over me, but I turned back to Dimitri. "Hey Comrade," he turned to look at me as he slid jeans on, "will you teach me how to fight?"

He chuckled, "I thought you already knew how to fight?"

"I do, but it wouldn't hurt to learn some new moves from you."

"I know lots of moves I could teach you," I was a little surprised at what he said and my thoughts immediately because dirty. "How about tonight?"

"Sure," I smiled as I answered a little too eagerly. He nodded and smiled back then I left.

I took the elevator down to the first floor and slowly walked into the kitchen only to run straight into my favorite red head. "Mason!" I threw my arms around him as he laughed and hugged me back tightly.

"Hey Rose," I pulled away, but Mason kept one arm around my waist and the other moved some hair out of my face. "God, I've missed you."

"I've missed you too, Mase." I smiled, but I was afraid me acting this way towards him would reassure him that I like him, when I didn't. Of course, I knew Mason liked me, I think everyone did. I'd known him since we were little—almost as long as I'd known Adrian—and we've always been those friends that always flirted, but never did anything. I'd considered dating Mason may times, and he's asked me out a lot, but it's just never felt right.

Someone cleared their throat causing Mason and I to turn to look at them. _Well shit_, it was Dimitri. I pulled out of Mason's arms, "Dimitri this is Mason, Mason this is my bodyguard, Dimitri."

"Bodyguard, wow," Mason shook Dimitri's hand and I didn't miss how they both firmly gripped each other's hands.

_Men_, I shook my head. "Ok, well it was great seeing you Mason."

"You too, Rose. I'd love to catch up soon?"

"That'd be great," I smiled.

"Dimitri," Mason nodded to him then walked out.

From the look on Dimitri's face I knew he wasn't happy about the scene he'd walked into. "He's just an old friend."

"Sure he is," Dimitri walked over to the pantry and started looking for something to eat.

"Dimitri, don't be like this." I walked over to stand behind him.

Dimitri stood and turned to look at me, "Like what?"

"Like you're going to shut me out again." I looked down, afraid to hear what he'd say and saw that our feet were almost touching. It was like I couldn't control myself around him, which I didn't like.

I felt a warm hand touch my chin and tilt my face up to look at him. "I already told you I could never do that again."

A small smile pulled at the corner of my lips, "Good."

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><p>I dropped down from the chin up bar and immediately feel to the floor, lying on my back, panting. "What the hell Dimitri?" I'd just finished running 20 laps, doing 100 sit ups, crunches, and push ups, now I was working on chin ups. The sweat running down my bar back rubbed on to the floor as I wiped the sweat off my face. I was wearing a sports bar and shorts, having taken off my shirt after running laps.<p>

"You haven't finished yet. I counted 45, I asked for 50." Dimitri's voice was cold and distant. He'd been acting like this all week at the practices we did have. I had to admit I'd been blowing him off a lot this week to spend time with Mason, but now that there was a deal being down tonight I had no reason not to train. However this was insane. I slowly stood up and grabbed some water. "Rose, finish your chin ups!"

"What the fuck is your problem?" I turned quickly on Dimitri and found him standing right in behind of me. "I've done everything you asked, even though I'm not sure why you're having me do all this stupid crap, unless you're mad about something, but I don't know that because you won't talk to me!" I yelled in his face and I could see him getting angrier and angrier by the second. "You promised you wouldn't shut me out." I wasn't sure where those words came from, but they sounded broken and hurt.

"Finish your chin ups, then you can leave." Dimitri glared at me then turned to walk out of the underground gym.

"No," my words were hard and defiant.

"What?" Dimitri turned back to me looking a little pissed.

"No, tell me what's wrong." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I want you to finish your chin ups then leave." He spat at me.

"That's not it." I stepped closer.

"What else could it possibly be Rose? Huh, if you know so well what do I want from you?" Dimitri walked closer to me.

"I don't know Dimitri, what do you want from me?"

"I want you!" He yelled in my face.

"What?" Those where the only words I could form, whether because I was in shock or because he close enough to me that his breath was on my face or because I'm stupid.

I saw the hurt form in his eyes and then all emotion was gone. "Never mind," Dimitri then turned and walked towards the door.

"No Dimitri, please wait." I pleaded but he didn't. He just walked out the door and slammed it.

I forced the tears back as I grabbed a hoodie I had left in the gym recently, put it on, and walked to the kitchen.

Lissa, Sydney, and Mia were sitting at the table drinking martinis and talking. "Rose," Lissa smiled, "have a seat." She took her feet off the one next to her, making room for me, and I sat down. "We were just talking about Sydney's obsession with Adrian."

"I am not obsessed!" Sydney shouted. "I'm just worried about him. You feel the same about Christian."

"That's because Christian and I are together!" Lissa laughed.

"Honestly Syd, why don't you just bang him already? You know he'd do it in a heart beat." Mia chuckled and then took another sip of her drink.

"Whoa, TMI guys. I do not need to hear about Sydney wanting to sleep with Adrian." I said covering my ears.

"You really think he would?" Sydney asked shocked.

"Sydney you're hot! Of course he would!" Mia shouted.

"Wait, he wouldn't sleep with her just because she's hot!" I jumped to defend Adrian. "No offense Syd," I said to her. "But Adrian has standards he's not just going to get into a girl's pants because she's hot, actually he doesn't 'bang' girls anyway. If he slept with Syd it'd be because he truly feels something for her and wants to make love to her, which he does."

"Really?" Sydney asked even more shocked.

"Yes, Adrian's liked you since he first saw you. He's just bad with expressing himself." I explained leaning back in my chair.

"So what should I do?" Sydney asked leaning on the table.

"Tell him, be the woman and make the first move, it's just that easy."

"This coming from the girl who won't even tell a certain Russian that she's infatuated with him," Lissa laughed.

"That's different," I snapped. Due to what'd just happened I was really sensitive about anything that had to do with Dimitri.

"How is it any different?" Mia asked smiling. "Honestly take your own advice and jump his bones already."

"Then it's no different than you lusting after Eddie for 16 years." I shot back at her. Lissa and Sydney busted out laughing at Mia's shocked face. At this point I was just tired, cranky, and confused and I didn't want to be around people. "I'm going to take out the trash and then head to the balcony."

I grabbed the trash can and started dragging it to the garage. Lissa was telling me to come back, but I really just couldn't deal with them right now. Once in the garage I pulled the full trash bag out of the bin and tied it up. I opened one of the garage doors and carried the bag out to the big trash bins we had outside.

It was already dark and we had one small, but bright light shining down on the big trash bin. I threw the bag in and turned to walk back into the garage when I stopped dead in my tracks. "Rose," Jesse smiled at me. He was barely a foot from me, how could I be stupid enough to not hear him coming? I was quickly thinking of the quickest way to get to the small red security button hidden behind a small bush next to the trash bin without Jesse stopping me. The bus was two feet from me, if I dived quickly—"Don't even try Rose," Jesse outsmarted me. "You won't get away from me this time." It was then I realized he was pointing a knife at me. Jesse walked closer to me and I knew it was now or never.

I lunged for the small bush, but Jesse caught my arm and threw me to the hard pavement. He straddled my stomach and pushed the knife into my neck. "I thought I told you not to do that, Rosie." He ran the knife down lower to where the tip was a little above my sternum and it pulled my hoodie down. "Don't make me hurt you Rosie." Jesse applied pressure and drew blood from my chest, but I refused to scream.

The whole time he was on top of me he didn't realize that I was able to move my legs. Swiftly I kicked up and hit him in the back of the head with my foot. He cried out in pain and fell off of me. I quickly crawled over to the bush and pushed the button, and then Jesse grabbed my ankle. He yanked my back, but the damage was done. I just had to fight to get away from him long enough until help came to me. And fight I did. All of the training I'd done with Dimitri and all the other skills I knew I threw into staying alive and stopping Jesse from hurting me. But due to how tired I already was from training and the deep cut on my chest, I wasn't going to last long. Jesse over powered me and pinned me back on the ground with his hand around my throat, his knife was on the ground close to us.

I was close to unconsciousness when someone knocked Jesse off of me. It was Dimitri. He was fighting Jesse and winning from what I could tell. I was close to blacking out when I saw Jesse hit Dimitri and knock him to the ground next to me, then Jesse rushed to grab something. It was his knife. Dimitri made eye contact with me as he lay on the ground in that second I could see in his eyes how much he cared about me and I hope my eyes said the same. "He has a knife," I mumbled to Dimitri. He looked up just in time to see Jesse coming at him. Dimitri threw his arm up to defend himself, but the knife wound up cutting a pretty large gash from his wrist up a little past his elbow.

Yelling came from behind Jesse and he turned just in time to be tackled by one of the guardians. Relief flooded me as well as the overwhelming need to sleep.

"Stay with me Roza," I must have blacked out because I woke up in the hospital wing.

"Put her on the bed," Dr. Olendzki ordered. From what I could tell they were bandaging my chest and some minor cuts on my head. Slowly the world started to right itself and I was able to think straight again. "Are you able to see clearer?"

"Yes Doctor, thank you." I smiled.

"Don't thank me, it was all Belikov." She nodded to Dimitri leaning against the wall. "Drink this," she handed me a cup of water, "and I'll be right back to finish taking care of you." She walked out and I drank the water before turning to Dimitri. His arm was still bleeding openly, with dried blood every where, of course they'd tend to me before him even though he is worse than I am.

Before I could say anything he cut me off. "I'm so sorry." I was about to call him stupid when he cut me off again. "If I hadn't let my feelings get in the way I wouldn't have left you alone and this wouldn't have happened. It's because of me that you're in here. I promised to keep you safe and I didn't again." The self loathing and anguish was obvious in his voice and it killed me.

"You're right," I said sliding off the bed to stand. Dimitri stepped to catch me but saw that I was fine and stepped back to the wall. "It's because of you that I'm in here—"

"You see! Even you admit it!" He cut me off. Now he was angry. "You could've been killed, and it would've been my fault!" His hands clinched into fists. "God, Roza I just need to- hit something, but I can't leave you. Just- please don't look at me." Dimitri punched the wall, then flipped the small wooden table over, and then grabbed the table and threw it at the opposite wall causing it to shatter.

"Ok enough," I grabbed his uninjured arm and pushed him to the wall, pressing my full body against him so he couldn't move. I grabbed his chin and made him look at me. "It's your fault I'm here because I'm alive. Your training and you saved me, ok."

"But if I hadn't left—"

"No buts Dimitri. I'm alive. You're alive. We're a little bumped and bruised and you're definitely bleeding, but we're alive. And now we're here."

"Where exactly is here?" He asked me looking deep into my eyes with those amazing brown eyes of his.

"Here is where you don't let anything hold you back and you tell me exactly how you feel." I said looking right back into his eyes.

"You don't know what you're asking of me Roza."

"Please," I begged. "I know you feel something for me, don't hide it from me. Don't shut me out." It was my turn to look away as my hand slipped from his face and I pulled my body away from him. "I won't be able to- I couldn't- Just- God, don't shut me out."

Before I knew what was happening I was pulled into a warm, muscular chest and had Dimitri's lips on mine. The kiss was amazing and the way I felt was even more… _wow_. I could kiss this man forever and I could stay in his arms forever.

Sadly forever was cut short when someone walked in "Oh my goodness!" We broke apart quickly to see Dr. Olendzki. "What happened here?"

"Uhhhh," I stuttered.

"I had a mild problem with my temper Doctor. It won't happen again," Dimitri said calmly. How could he act so nonchalantly about that kiss? It was mind blowing and I was still trying to catch my breath, but he was fine!

"Good, now Rose—"

"No," I cut her off. "Dimitri's practically bleeding out here. Please just patch him up first then take care of me."

"Ok—"

"No Rose," Dimitri cut her off looking at me. "I need to know you're ok first."

"Dimitri I'm fine." I subtly laced my fingers with his. "Please."

"Ok," he sighed as I smiled.

* * *

><p>Dimitri followed me up to my room after we'd both been cleared to leave the hospital. We'd both been sent to go straight to be and no training for a week. Dimitri had to get stitches in his arm and had a large bandage over it, but other than that he was fine. I had a bandage on my chest and a few small Band-Aids on the corner of my head where I'd hit the pavement. I walked out to the balcony and Dimitri followed, but something about him was off.<p>

"Roza, about what happened—"

Before he could finish I turned to him and crushed my lips to his. One of his arms wrapped tightly around me, pulling me closer, the uninjured one came up to my head and he wove his fingers into my hair. After kissing for a while he pulled away and I said, "Don't you dare push me away. I don't care what you say, I know you feel this." And to prove my point I place a hand over his heart. I could feel the beats quicken instantly and electricity surged through my hand where I touched him.

"It's yours Roza, and I don't think I could ever take it away." He smiled down at me as he looked in my eyes.

"Good, because I don't want to give it back." I smiled at him. We walked hand in hand to the mattress out on the balcony and lay down. My head was on his chest and as I listened to his heartbeat I took his hand in mine and brought it up to rest on my heart. "This is yours now."

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><p>Dimitri and I waited out in the drive way as we watched the cars drive up. The sun was just rising as everyone got out of the cars and even with the dim lighting I could see the looks on everyone's faces. I knew that they'd heard about what'd happened to me so I wasn't shocked that they all looked upset. However I'd hoped that since they knew I was fine they wouldn't all look so miserable. Abe and Adrian walked over to me as everyone sort of went their own way. I was a little surprised because usually Eddie was the first one to come hug me, but as I searched for him I found him crying. Head in his hands, sitting on the ground, leaning against the car. Mia rushed to his side to comfort him and it was then I realized that everyone was not just depressed, they were in mourning. Something else was wrong.<p>

"Rose," my eyes snapped to Abe. "Mason's dead."

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><p><strong>review!<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

I sat up on my balcony staring at all the guardians patrolling the grounds. Once Abe had shaken off the grief of Mason's murder he'd started calling out orders and had disappeared into his office to find out who'd done it. Dimitri had gone off to do whatever job Abe had assigned to him and I had locked myself up here to keep people from pitying me. That was over twelve hours ago and it was now past ten at night. I hadn't gone to get food for fear that someone would try to talk to me and there was no way I could sleep so I took up a new hobby of watching the guardians walk around below me.

My phone started vibrating next to me and I answered it without looking at the caller id. "Hello?"

"Rosemarie Mazur it's so good to hear your voice again." My blood ran cold, my muscles stiffened, and every nerve in my body was on high alert at the sound of the voice on the other line. "What no snide comments? That's not like you Rosemarie. Then again after everything we've been through I did break you out of that habit." My breathing started to increase as the panic attack started to set in. "I love the way you react to me Rose. I can't wait to see it in person." Tears were welling up in my eyes and I started to sweat. "Which reminds me why I called! You will leave the safety of your home Rose and come to me or another person you love will die." My breathing and heart stopped when the reality of what he said hit me. "I take it from your silence you understand I killed Mason. Good. You have one month to come to me before another person you love dies… that is if I can wait that long. I do long very much to see you Rose so if you want to spare your loved one, especially that Russian you've been so kind to fall in love with, I'd come quickly. Though I am still a little mad that Belikov took you from me in the first place and now that he's stolen your heart from me as well I might just kill him to satisfy my jealousy."

"You won't touch him," I spat.

"Oh I must have struck a nerve," he chuckled. "Like I said Rose, hurry and he might be spared." Then he ended the call.

The phone slipped from my hand and my face fell into my hands as I succumbed to the tears. "Rose." I pair of strong arms wrapped around me and held me into his chest as I cried. "Look at me Rose and breathe ok?" I looked up into his blue eyes and started to breathe slower. "That's it," he encouraged me.

Once my breathing was under control he removed his arms from me and sat next to me. "Thank you Ivan."

"Anytime Mazur," he smiled at me. "Wanna tell me what that was about?"

"I'd rather tell everyone at one time." I looked down at my phone wishing I could make the memories that were surfacing away.

"Abe's in his office now with Adrian and the rest of the Families."

"I'm guessing that's your subtle hint that you want me to go tell them now?"

"Mazur, I just came up here to find you having a panic attack and there's only one person I know that could have that effect on you. So yes we're going now." He spoke seriously and helped me up to my feet.

"Fine," I sighed and grabbed my phone.

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><p>Everyone sat silently in Abe's office as I explained exactly what Victor had said, but leaving out his threats against Dimitri. Adrian sat next to me holding my hand the whole time and as much as I wanted Dimitri with me Abe had sent him out to the club with Mikhail. I couldn't make a big deal about wanting him with me unless I wanted Abe to find out about us and I wasn't ready for people to know yet incase Victor had people in the Families that could hurt him. Once the Families were all briefed on the situation with Victor and warned that if they had any contact with him they would be severally punished—meaning killed—everyone was dismissed.<p>

Adrian and Ivan walked with me back up to my room as Abe asked. "He won't hurt you again, little flower," Adrian assured me. "Besides if he even tried you know the Russian would kill him." Adrian tried to lighten the mood, but what he didn't know was that he was making my fear for Dimitri's safety worse.

"The Russian?" Ivan asked once we stepped out of the elevator.

"Rose's new bodyguard." Adrian explained as he plopped on to my couch and turned on the TV.

Ivan raised an eyebrow at me and I just shook my head letting him know I didn't want to talk about it. After an hour of watching TV Adrian got bored and left me with Ivan. "Rose, Victor will not get to you again." Ivan looked into my eyes, "I promise you that."

"Ivan please don't make promises that you can't keep. If Victor wants me he'll get me."

"Rose—"

"Rose?" Dimitri's worried voice cut off Ivan as he ran into my room from the closet. I stood up quickly and ran into his arms. After everything that had happened all I wanted to do was curl up into his arms and be with him. "I heard what happened and the second I could come back to you I did. I'm so sorry I wasn't here." He whispered into my ear.

"It's ok," I whispered into his chest as I started to cry, "You're here now."

He pulled away from me and held my face in his hands as he looked into my eyes, "I won't let him hurt you."

"I know." All I wanted to do was kiss him, but with Ivan here I couldn't because I didn't want him to see anymore of our affection towards each other than he'd already seen.

Speaking of Ivan he cleared his throat as he stood from the couch, "Well now that your bodyguard's here I'm just going to—"

"Ivan?" Dimitri cut him off as he let go of my face and stared at my friend.

"Belikov?" Ivan asked as shock flooded his face.

"You two know each other?" I asked looking between them.

"He was my best friend and I thought he was dead." Dimitri answered.

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><p><strong>I know it's short, but I wanted to update.<strong>

**Review!**


	8. Chapter 8

I couldn't sleep. Maybe it was the fact that I knew I was going to have nightmares, or that I was terrified out of my mind, or because of me one of the sweetest guys and my closest friends was dead, also because more people were more than likely going to die because of me. For whatever reason, and there were plenty, sleep was inevitable so I chose to let my mind wander as I laid face up in bed staring at the ceiling.

When Dimitri had seen Ivan everything just clicked for me. This was Dimitri's best friend, it was almost stupid of me not to realize it before, but at the same time what are the chances of this happening? I knew that Dimitri had a lot of questions for Ivan so I told them to go catch up. I could see how much Dimitri wanted to stay with me, but I also needed to get my thoughts together and find a way to tell him that Viktor threatened him. Maybe that was the real reason sleep eluded me. The possibility of losing Dimitri was something I don't think that I can bear. But how could you tell someone you were falling in love with, that because you loved them someone wanted them dead.

I mulled over that thought for a long time then stopped when I heard my closet door open and close. Dimitri walked over to my bed when he saw me look at him and sat on the side. "I took the stairs hoping not to wake you."

I smiled and laid my hand over his on the bed, "I haven't had alcohol all day. What makes you think I can possibly sleep?" I meant it as a joke but with the sad smiled Dimitri gave me I knew he didn't think it was funny. "Will you tell how things with Ivan went?"

Dimitri nodded and laid down next to me, "Can I hold you?"

He sounded so unsure and that made me chuckle, "Of course. I am yours after all."

I felt one of his arms slip under my side and pull me in to his chest where I laid my head. The other touched my cheek and tilted my face up to his, "You're mine?" There was an unbelievable full smile on his face that took my breath away.

"Yes." I cuddled my body closer to Dimitri's and got comfortable.

"I never knew Ivan's family was so rich and in so many illegal businesses. Ivan was my roommate all four years of college and we literally did everything together. He was like the brother I never had." I could hear the emotion setting in to Dimitri's voice, it was clear this was hard for him. My hand absent mindedly started running up and down the center of his chest. His pecks and abs were so perfectly chiseled that there was a defined perfect line down the center of them. Dimitri's breathing slowed along with his heart rate and his grip on my side tightened as if he did not want me to disappear. "Ivan convinced me to travel to the States with him after we graduated. He took me out to a club the night after we arrived, after he got me a drink he went missing for a few hours. I got a text from him after that saying to head back to the hotel and he'd meet me there soon. Our hotel wasn't far from the club and I was sober enough to walk, he knew the area so I was not worried about leaving him, but I should have been. I shouldn't have left him. He was my brother, Rose."

"Hey," my hand trailed up from his chest to his face and I made Dimitri look at me. "He's alive."

"The police called and said he was mugged, shot dead. I never saw the body. My best friend faked his death for me."

I tried to wipe all the tears that fell from Dimitri's eyes but it was useless, there were too many. "He didn't want you to be a part of this life."

"But I'm here now."

"And I am so glad that you are." His tears slowed and I was able to wipe away almost all of them. "Ivan loves you and he did it to protect you. But you are both here now and will have plenty of time to spend together I promise."

"Thank you, Roza," he wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my hair as mine fell into his chest. "Ivan told me about your panic attack earlier." I pulled away from him enough to be able to see his face. "You know I would never let anything happen to you."

"I know that and that's the problem." As soon as the words left my mouth Dimitri's expression became hurt. It was harsher and not the way I meant for the words to sound, but I had to find some way to tell him. Again I sighed but this time I pulled out of his embrace and sat up on the edge of the bed. "I know how much you want to protect me. So many people say they won't let anything happen to me, but when you say it…"I looked down at my hands that were folded on top of my crisscrossed legs. "I know you mean it, I believe it, and…" I could feel the tears welling in my eyes as I started to choke them back.

"Rose," Dimitri moved closer to me and carefully placed a hand on my waist like he was going to pull me back to him.

"This is crazy because I haven't even known you for a year. When you saved me from Viktor three years ago I never imagined this would happen, hell I didn't even thing I'd see you again. I didn't even know your name, but now I know that and so much more. I know you, the way you look so peaceful when you sleep, how driving helps clear your mind, the way you love so passionately, your obsession with Western novels, the silkiness of your hair, the rhythmic beat of your heart, everything that makes you who you are and everything that just made me fall in love with you." Then I had one of those holy shit I said that moments and I froze. "That was the most awful way I could've possibly told you that."

Dimitri laughed and pulled me into his chest. "No it wasn't. It was honest and heartfelt."

He kissed the side of my forehead and then my cheek and I knew he was going to kiss my lips next, but I couldn't let him. "Dimitri, there's something I have to tell you." I pulled away from him and turned to face him. He looked worried and I took a deep breath to prepare myself. "The panic attack wasn't because of Viktor's call, it was because he-. Viktor he-." The words would not come out of my mouth. I stammered and stuttered for words but nothing made sense. I closed my eyes to keep from seeing his worried face and then looked back at my hands. "He knows. He found out how I feel about you and threatened you. He's mad because I love you, because no matter what he will never have my heart. And because I finally don't believe the words he carved into me. He wants you dead, and it's all my fault," it was then I started crying. "Because I started caring about you and loving you and now it's going to get you killed. It's all my fault that I'm going to lose the one thing I cannot live without."

Dimitri's hands rushed to my face and made me look at him, "No." His thumbs wiped my tears and he repeated, "No. No. _No._ This is not your fault. Yes you fell in love with me, but that is not why Viktor wants me dead. You cannot blame yourself and then plan to stop loving me like I know you will try. That plan is stupid, Rose, because no matter what you decide I will not stop loving you. Viktor is mad because I love you. Because he believes that I have taken something that belongs to him, but you were never his. You have been and will always be mine. I love you, I am so in love with you Rosemarie Mazur, and I will never let Viktor Dashkov take you from me. I will protect you because I refuse to live without you, because I want you forever. You can pretend to not have feelings for me anymore but Viktor will still try to have me killed because I cannot and will not pretend that I do not want you ever second, every minute, every hour of the day. I will not let anything happen to you because I love you." Dimitri crashed his lips to mine and pulled me into him so there was no space left between us.

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><p>The buzzing of my phone woke me up at eight the next morning. I answered it quickly once I remembered that Dimitri had fallen asleep with me and I didn't want to wake him. "Hello?"<p>

"Kiz, can you come to my office?" I was relived it was Abe and not an unwanted caller, especially after I had gotten so little sleep.

"Of course, let me get dressed." Ten minutes later I was sitting in Abe's office eating the donuts he had gotten me.

"You sounded exhausted on the phone. Did you not sleep well?" Abe was looking over some papers on his desk, trying not to look interested, but I knew he was more focused on me.

"I slept just fine," I tried to sound convincing.

"Rose," he looked up from his papers. "If something is bothering you, you know you can tell me?"

"I know, Baba."

"Any nightmares?"

"No, I promise I am alright. Why the sudden interest in my sleeping habits?"

"The guards said they heard more noise than usual coming from your floor last night. I was just checking."

"Dimitri and I—" Before I could finish my explanation there was a knock on the door and Dimitri entered to office.

"Sorry to interrupt," I could tell he had just woken up and immediately come looking for me. I should have left him a note.

"It is quite alright, come sit," Abe gestured to the chair next to me. "I was just asking Rose about last night. She mentioned the two of you."

"Yes sir, Rose and I were together last night." Knowing Dimitri and how smart he is I'm sure he was going to give my father a credible excuse. "I will not lie and say that I tried very hard to resist your daughter, she is quite amazing, and I am lucky to say that we do love each other."

I remained very still but my eyes widened and I felt like they were going to bulge from my face. Abe looked dangerously calm and I took a second for everything to set in before I looked at Dimitri, "Abe was asking why there was noise coming from my room last night. I was going to tell him I was telling you about Viktor's phone call and then you walked in."

Dimitri looked at me and realization settled in, "You never mentioned that we…?"

"Nope," I shook my head. Dimitri and I looked at Abe then back at each other.

"This is awkward," Dimitri said to me.

The tension was getting thicker in the room and I was scared that Abe was going to pull out a gun and shot my lover. "Baba, how about you put your gun on the desk and stop pointing it at Dimitri? We can at least talk about this like civilized people."

Abe did as I asked and lift the gun from under his desk then set it down on top where we could all see it. "Just so you know, Mr. Belikov, it is fully loaded so I would answer all my questions truthfully and carefully."

"Yes sir," Dimitri nodded respectfully. "But to be fair," Dimitri reached behind his back and produced the gun that had been tucked in the back of his pants then set it on the desk as well.

"Men," I shook my head.

"Great now, have you two slept together?" Abe didn't waste any time getting to the information he wanted.

"No," I responded at the same time Dimitri said, "Yes." My mouth fell open as I looked at him wide eyed and then back at Abe. "Yes," I said quickly remembering that we technically slept together last night in my bed, but it was also at the same time Dimitri said, "no," because he realized Abe meant had we _slept_ together.

"Yes," Dimitri said quickly before Abe could pick up his gun, "we slept together in Rose's bed last night."

"But we did not have sex!" I assured my father, this was so not the way I wanted Abe to find out about us.

"Good to know." Abe turned his attention to Dimitri and my stomach dropped, "Would you try to have sex with my daughter?"

"That is not a fair, but very good question," I too looked at Dimitri, "that I would love to hear the answer to."

"Of course I would," Dimitri flat out grinned. I was beginning to wonder if he had lost his mind. "Rose is a phenomenal woman and I am fortunate to have her. It does not matter to me who her father is, no disrespect intended sir I assure you, but I do love her and when the time comes, if she will have me, yes I will make love to her."

I looked back at Abe who was eerily calm, "You're a smart man, Belikov."

My father's fingers wrapped around his gun and my hand twitched towards my own firearm, "Abe?"

Abe smiled and laughed, "Relax, Kiz. I'm not going to shoot him, at least not today." He slipped the gun back under the desk, into its hiding place.

"Could've fooled me," I stood up as the two men shook hands and Dimitri took back his gun.

"My advice son, take her out on a real date before you sleep with her," Abe smiled at Dimitri as we were walking out of the office.

"I plan to," Dimitri answered as he opened the door for me.

"You two are unbelievable," I shook my head as I walked out of the office and Dimitri shut the door.

Neither of us quite knew what to say in the elevator back to our room and I was still trying to cope with the fact that Dimitri had just said he would have sex with me.

"I think that went well," Dimitri smiled.

"Don't talk to me," I snapped at him as I walked towards my bathroom to take a shower.

"What?" Dimitri followed me.

I stopped at the bathroom door and turned to him, "I was to shoot you and make out with you at the same time right now, which is very confusing for me. So can I just have some time to get my brain and my hormones on the same page?"

Dimitri laughed at me, "Whatever you want."

"Stop doing that!"

"Doing what?" He smiled.

"Being all happy and shit. You've been smiling and laughing so much, it's pissing me off."

This caused Dimitri to laugh and smile even more, "I love you."

"I know and so does my father!" Then I slammed my bathroom door shut between us and smiled like an idiot. I was so in love with him.

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><p><strong>Please review :)<strong>


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